


The Devices and Machinations of Lisa Loud

by Sesquipedalian_Numeral



Category: The Loud House (Cartoon)
Genre: Gen, Invisibility Cloak, Science Fiction, Technology, Teleportation
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-04-26
Updated: 2018-07-05
Packaged: 2019-04-28 03:11:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 56,754
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14440200
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sesquipedalian_Numeral/pseuds/Sesquipedalian_Numeral
Summary: Lisa Loud is a child prodigy with the ability to make almost anything she desires for whatever purpose. This series records her and her family's adventures through the various tools and devices Lisa makes.





	1. Personal Cloaking Device

The ends justify the means.

That's a belief Lisa Loud held true to herself in her scientific endeavors. She studied and worked for the future of mankind, but alas, the world didn't always agree. Some people are scared of change, or simply don't  _understand_. However, for something as truly  _fundamental_  to human nature as progress is, sometimes you have to take matters in your own hands and show everyone else what's right.

With that philosophy in mind, Lisa found herself standing outside Lori and Leni's room close to midnight. Mask on face, gloves on both hands, a surgeon's toolbox in one hand, and a fist of resolve to show the world what she was truly capable of in the other.

Lisa opened the door to the room ajar, and poked her head in. She looked around in the dimly lit room, with the only source of light being the moonlight shining through the window.

Ahah! Target acquired! Leni could be seen sleeping soundly in her bed with her trademark blindfold.

Lisa pushed the door open a little further and slid herself in through the small opening. Once inside, she got on all fours and crawled over to the bed with the unsuspecting young woman. As the child prodigy approached the upper half of the bed, she stood up to face the ditzy teen. A mischievous grin formed on her face as she reached out and ran her fingers through Leni's hair, measuring out a small finger-grip's worth.

"Ooohhhh mama, this protein filament from the follicular area, street name hair sample, will enable a massive breakthrough in genetic engineering!" Lisa whispered to herself.

The 4-year-old reached for her toolbox, took out a pair of scissors, and positioned them up to the hair sample, ready to clamp down. Oh, just imagine what she could be capable of if she finally got the sample. Perfect cloning and revolutionize agriculture and manual labor! Physical alteration of the human body at will to create a human super-race! Maybe even figure out what the hell is up with Leni and her complete lack of mental acuity! If she could have just  _this_   _one small victory_ , then she could-

SLAM!

Suddenly at the entrance, a certain older sibling of Lisa could be seen, holding a bouquet of flowers in one hand, and wearing a dress to impress. Her teeth were grit together, and her eyes were staring daggers at the brunette. She had just come back from a very special date with Bobby and dealing with her siblings was the  _last_  thing she needed right now.

"Lisa Marie Loud! WHAT did I literally tell you about taking hair samples from others without their permission!?"

"It won't hurt her if she doesn't notice!"

Lori lunged at the child, picked her up by the collar, and threw her into the hallway. Lisa made an audible 'oof" as she landed, with no samples to take back to the lab.

Other doors in the hallway started opening, and heads poked out of some of them.

"What was that Lisa!? This noise is interrupting my beauty sleep!"

"Well, I'd say the noise was the Lisa her worries!"

"Sigh, I know I'm creepy, but even I wouldn't sneak out at midnight to cut off a lock of someone's hair"

More complaints ensued as Lisa picks herself up and trudges back to her lab. This wasn't the first time her siblings got in the way, nor would it be the last. She still couldn't help but pinch the bridge of her nose as she entered her room and made her way to her own bed. It seemed every time she tried to obtain the materials she needed, it always ended with  _someone_  getting in the way. Someone that clearly wasn't capable of understanding what she was doing.

No matter, today just wasn't Lisa's day, but there's always the next day. She would succeed tomorrow where she didn't succeed today…

And the day before that…

And the day before  _that…_

Lisa put a hand on her chin and starts tapping her foot in place. What was the point if she was just going to be stopped by another one of her meddling siblings? If the 4-year-old maintained the same methods she had before, then her chances of success weren't going to increase. Something had to change.

"Hmm… If only there was a way for me to not be caught every time…"

It was at this moment that a proverbial lightbulb lit up above the toddler's head.

"Of course! To not be caught, I simply have to not be visible!"

Lisa took off her mask and gloves as she crawled into her bed. Today just wasn't Lisa's day, but there's always tomorrow, and what a day momentous occasion tomorrow would be! But for now, it was time to maintain a proper sleep cycle. As excited as the child prodigy may be, sleep deprivation was  _not_  good for maintaining a sharp mind, and she had a lot of work ahead of her.

The young girl dozed off to sleep with an optimistic smile on her face.

* * *

"…and done! It's finally complete!"

Lisa rubbed her hands excitedly against each other as she took a few seconds to admire the device she had spent the past day laboriously crafting for herself. The device resembled a laser pointer small enough to be held in the toddler's hands, with knobs on one end and a tiny bulb of some sort on the other.

The child prodigy picked up the device from her desk and admired it in her hand once more. "No invention is complete without a demonstration... and I know precisely where to conduct my first field test!"

Lisa pointed the device towards herself, took a deep breath, and pushed the button.

A laser-pointer-like light emitted from the device with a slightly audible buzzing noise. The light continued to shine for around 5 seconds, until it dissipated.

The 4-year-old glanced down at her other hand and studied its appearance. There was a certain glimmer reflecting off the thin transparent coating on her skin. The shine on her skin would reflect differently each time as the toddler twisted her hands around a bit.

Lisa stuffed the device in her pocket as she made her way to the door. She walked through the hallway, where Lynn played soccer hockey and the twins could be seen fighting over Izzy ruining Lola's dress again. She made her way down the stairs to the living room, where Lori texted Bobby on the couch, Leni watched TV, and Lily absentmindedly crawled around on the floor. Finally, the 4-year old turned left towards the kitchen, where Luan could be seen baking actual pies. Mr. Coconuts was propped nearby Luan, staring out at nothing in particular.

"Boy, am I milking these ingredients for these puns!" the comedian laughed as she poured milk into the mix. "Say, Mr. Coconuts, do you know where the whisk is?"

"Beats me" Luan voices the ventriloquist dummy. "I'd say the drawer, but I wouldn't wanna draw your attention away from these amazing jokes!"

"Gee, you really do insPIEre me!" Luan laughed again. "Get it?"

Luan currently found herself distracted with her back turned towards the counter, as she mixes up the batter. Normally, Lisa would roll her eyes, but this time, she found herself consumed with the thought of a certain delectable treat within the household: the bars of sweetened Theobroma Cacao, street name chocolate. A taste of this scrumptious goodness could do wonders to raise the serotonin levels of the child prodigy.

Lisa drooled a bit as she made her way over to the counter and faced the comedian, who apparently didn't actually know where the whisk was. Lisa waved her arms around to try and get Luan's attention, but the teen seemed to not notice, continuing to check each individual drawer.

Perfect! The device was clearly working as intended.

Lisa stepped up a nearby stool and hoists herself up on the counter. Standing on both feet, she reached up to the cabinet housing the sugar-filled snacks. The 4-year-old opened the cabinet, took a piece, and stuffed it in her pocket. Finally, after insisting to herself she would only take one and taking four pieces anyway, the toddler stepped down from the counter and left the kitchen. Luan had been completely innocent to Lisa's presence all this time.

Even in the living room, no one noticed Lisa's presence. Of course, in The Loud House you can't expect everyone to acknowledge each and every individual's presence, but you would at least expect them to glance up. Not a single one of them did. Lori still texted on her phone, Leni still watched TV, and Lily continued to crawl around aimlessly.

Lisa ran up the stairs, almost bursting with glee as she approached the hallway. At the top, she waved her arms around as she tries her damnedest to not squeal in joy, very well knowing that no one would see her. Not Lynn, not Lola, not Lana. No one.

The 4-year-old ran into her bedroom, took the device out of her pocket, pointed it at herself again, and pressed the button. The device emitted yet another beam of light and made the same buzzing sound, dissipating after a few seconds.

The child prodigy looked down at her hand, which no longer had the glimmering film plastered on the surface. A fist formed as she fully processed just what she had accomplished. With this newfound capability to become invisible at will, just imagine what other dreams could be realized! She could get all the hair samples she could ever want! Observe the family's behavior in the bathroom  _in person!_  Dissect Lana's pets without that damn grease monkey's unwillingness to let go of her superficial connections with subhuman species! A million possibilities well up in her mind, and she finally has the power to turn these  _visions_  into  _actions_. Her family may not understand now, but they  _will_  when they see the fruits of her labor.

Sometimes, you have to take matters in your own hands and show everyone else what's right.

Before that however, there was a certain piece of candy in Lisa's pocket just dying to be unwrapped and melted into a sweet mess on the child's tongue. Or two. Or three.

* * *

The time had come to obtain what was rightfully hers. She  _will_  get the hair sample she was deprived of last night. Maybe even more than just a hair sample...

Lisa Loud could once again be seen outside Lori and Leni's room in a rather familiar situation to what happened just the night before. Mask on face, gloves on both hands, surgical toolbox on one hand, and a certain cloaking device in her other hand that wasn't previously there.

A mischievous grin formed on the prodigy's face as she pointed the device at herself and pressed the button. Some giggling could be heard from an attempt at stifling a full-blown maniacal laughter. A light was emitted and a subtle buzzing sound was heard. Within seconds, Lisa was completely invisible again.

The door was opened ajar, and Lisa poked her head in, scanning the room. Same old dimly lit room as before, and Leni was still sleeping in the same bed with the same blindfold and everything. Further from the entrance, a light tapping sound could be heard, which was revealed to be Lori texting Bobby late at night again. Ugh, would do her good to do  _literally_  anything else productive once in a while.

The child prodigy slipped in through the crack and crawled her way over to the upper area of Leni's bed again, facing her the same way she had before. The 4-year-old glanced up at Lori, who was still texting away like there's no tomorrow. So far, the plan has been executed flawlessly.

Lisa opened up her toolbox and started recounting the tools she needed for the imminent operation. "Scissors, test tubes, some forceps, calipers, a scalpel, anesthetics, syringe…"

After a few minutes of counting her tools, she finally picked up the scissors and scalpel and started grating them against each other. It doesn't hurt to add a little bit of show to a momentous occasion such as this one. Music to her ears~…

Suddenly, the 4-year-old was taken aback by a forceful tug felt from Lisa's collar as she is lifted up above the ground.

"Ahah! Caught you in the act again!"

The child prodigy stopped as she processed just what had occurred. Lori had just acknowledged her presence in the room. Something was clearly very wrong. Sweat poured out from Lisa's palms and forehead as she helplessly dangles from her eldest sibling's grasp. She braces herself for the inevitable outrage from her eldest sister, directly up close to her face.

"B-but I don't understand- what could have possibly…?"

"Did you really think I wouldn't hear you sharpening knives and whispering to yourself all the creepy things you were going to do to Leni!?" Lori growled.

Lisa buried her face in her hands. Of course! They may not  _see_  me, but they can still  _hear_  me! Such a simplistic oversight for a girl of her stature to make!

The door to Lori and Leni's room opened, as the rest of the Loud siblings flood into the room, each rubbing their eyes and yawning. They were already deprived of some sleep from the commotion last night and suffice it to say that losing sleep two days in a row wasn't their idea of fun.

Lisa pinched the bridge of her nose as she took out her device, pointed it at herself again, and pressed the button. Soon, she was visible to everyone again, and her reappearance was greeted with a collective drop of jaws from the rest of the siblings entering the scene.

"Dude, what gives? First the giggling, then the whispering, the knife grating, and now this?" Luna yawned.

"I would not find myself in this predicament if a certain someone within my immediate lineage hadn't disrupted the operation!" Lisa yelled facing Lori, as saliva splattered on Lori's nightdress.

Lori's face turned to a snarl as she prepared to strangle Lisa again, but Lincoln moved himself towards the space between Lori and Lisa, signaling his older sister to stop.

"Okay, no need for violence just yet. Something crazy definitely happened here."

"You have exactly three seconds to explain yourself before I turn you into a human pretzel!" Lori snarls.

"BECAUSE I DON'T KNOW WHAT ELSE TO DO!" Lisa yelled at the top of her lungs.

The rest of the siblings found themselves stunned as they fully absorbed what Lisa had just said. You know something is definitely up when  _Lisa_  of all people doesn't know what to do in a given situation.

Lisa turned to face the rest of her siblings directly. "Every time I require a sample, a test subject, anything! No one  _willingly_  cooperates!" She started pointing fingers at each of her siblings. "You hairless apes are truly incapable of comprehending the importance of the tasks I undertake! If Leni won't give me a hair sample herself, then I have to take it from her! I take it upon myself to see the change I want to happen, and you will all thank me one day for something far more grandiose than the title of grade-school tutor proverbially tacked onto my name!"

Lisa was panting by the time she exhausted the anger welled up inside her from the past several months. Lori set Lisa down on the floor, and the siblings found themselves stunned once more. Seeing an emotional outburst from Lisa like what they had just witnessed was truly a rarity. Each of them was at a complete loss of words.

Lincoln was the first to ease himself back into the conversation. "But Lisa, you're more than just a tutor. You're Lisa Loud, and we love you just the way you are!"

"Yeah!" Lana piped up. "You're really smart, and you can do things we can't even understand like it's nothing! You help us with these amazing inventions no one else can make!"

"Like those Gloweos you fed Luan to guide us through the basement!" Lola exclaimed.

"You made a time machine to bring us back in time when Lily wouldn't stop playing with Fenton the Fox! How many people can really use that as a solution?" Lincoln added.

"Then why do you continue disrupting my work!?" Lisa shouted as fists formed in her hands. "Why don't you cooperate and let me obtain what I require if you know why I conduct my studies and scientific endeavors!?"

The loud siblings collectively put their hands up to their chins. They had to admit, that was a good question, and it wasn't going to be easy to respond.

Lynn finally took the plunge as she removed her hand and pointed at the 4-year-old. "Well, how do you feel about Soccer? Football? Hockey?"

"Inane recreational activity that takes away from bettering myself and the world," Lisa responded flatly, crossing her arms as she did so.

Lynn frowned a bit. Predictable, but it still hurt to hear. "Well, you're objectively wrong, but fine. I think if everyone in the world started playing more sports, then we would all be physically fit and have a really fun time. The thing is though, not everyone sees sports in the same way. I might try and spread the love once in a while, but I won't force someone to play if they really don't want to. People aren't gonna have fun if they aren't gonna accept it from the start!"

"Yeah!" Luan nodded in agreement. "I think the world could be better off with more laughter, but I'm not spreading happiness to everyone if I tell jokes to people that don't want to hear them or don't think they're funny! I tell jokes because I think they're funny myself, and that's all that matters to me!"

"Same with rocking out to some sweet jams!"

"My poetry only shines a light in those that are consumed with darkness like I am"

"I don't make other people eat mud, that means more for me!"

"My pageants are reserved for those deserving and willing!"

Lincoln walked up to Lisa, crouched down to her height, put a hand on her shoulder, and looked his younger sister in the eye. "Lisa, you're an incredible gift to have in this family, and I don't want you to ever forget that. But sometimes, your actions are harmful, or make others really uncomfortable. I know you are capable of doing incredible things we can only dream of, but it's not for the good of humanity if people are getting hurt because of that. People can only benefit if they accept your talent."

It was now Lisa's turn to be stunned. Normally, she would expect to get berated like she always does and leave it at that, but this instance was particularly special in that she was receiving praise, comfort, and genuine advice instead.

Lisa reached over to Lincoln with open arms and Lincoln accepted, putting the two in a warm embrace. Lincoln had the same reassuring smile he always did, while Lisa's face was less certain. Contempt, failure, understanding, joy, the fusion of these emotions led to a façade of complete neutrality, aside from a single tear shedding itself from her eyes.

The rest of the siblings joined in for another group-hug session. Lisa, being the center of attention this time around, found herself surrounded as she was squeezed from every angle. The hug lasted for a solid 10 seconds, before everyone loosened their grip on each other's loving embrace.

The Loud siblings watched as the child prodigy stood for another 10 seconds, before she turned towards the door and left without another word.

The return to the lab still continued to yield no physical results; Lisa still didn't have the hair sample, a kidney, an appendix, or whatever else she may have wanted. However, the toddler left this time with an idea: An idea with lots of room for introspection, and what Lisa Loud truly stood for.

The 4-year-old entered her room, and Lisa crawled into her bed without bothering to take off her other equipment. Her siblings had given her a lot to think about, and it was imperative that she converted these memories from short-term to long-term.

Eventually, the child prodigy did fall asleep, albeit with great difficulty as she tossed and turned in bed over her past actions.

* * *

Lisa Loud could be seen standing outside Lori and Leni's room for a 3rd time now, except this time it was in the afternoon, long after everyone had woken up and went through their routines. No mask on her face, nor gloves on her hands, simply a scissor in one hand and the cloaking device in the other.

The child prodigy looked down at her right hand holding said device and gazed at it. She had put a lot of blood, sweat, and tears into working on the device, and she marveled at the fact that it worked mostly in her vision, even if she still failed at the objective. Not many people could claim that they made a device that made you invisible to the naked eye.

Progress is fundamental to human nature, but part of making progress is bettering yourself as a person and furthering your understanding of the world around you. The time had come to take one very important step in that journey.

Lisa squeezed her right hand as tightly as she could. Her hands went white as she applied pressure on the device from all sides and constrained blood flow to her hands.

After seconds of struggling, the cloaking device burst into a million pieces. Lisa flinched as the little shards dug themselves into Lisa's palm, and a cut formed from one of them. The deed had been done. The cloaking device was no more.

The child prodigy took a deep breath as she stuffed her scissors in one pocket, the scraps in the other, opened the door and walked in. The room was brightly lit this time, with the sun shining through the window on the high of noon, and its warm rays radiating within.

Leni could now be seen organizing her closet and admiring each individual piece of clothing she had bought from the mall. It was a wonder how she bought all sorts of different options to wear on any given day, and yet ended up with the same seafoam green dress every time, which wasn't something Lisa could even begin to understand.

Lisa cleared her throat as she prepared her inquiry. "Greetings 2nd eldest sibling! I was wondering if you may assist me in a certain scientific endeavor of mine that I wish to undertake."

The ditzy blonde turned to face her younger sister, and a cheery smile appeared on her face. "Sure Lisa! What do you need?"

Lisa took off her glasses and rubbed her eyes as she prepared her speech. "First off, I would like to apologize for any potential misunderstandings that may have occurred from my previous attempts at obtaining samples from you. It was very selfish of me to attempt to forcibly take what is rightfully yours to keep and give away, and it is my hope that we can move past that and coexist in this household without further unnecessary conflict."

Leni tilted her head and stared blankly at the child prodigy.

The toddler sighed, put her glasses back on, and looked up at her elder sister. "I'm sorry for trying to take hair samples from you."

"Oh! That's like totally fine!" Leni chirped. "I didn't even know that happened! Lori told me all about it!"

Lisa put her hand up to her chin. Of course, Leni was asleep both times Lisa snuck into her room. It's a wonder she's capable of dozing through all the commotion! The stark contrast between the two in mental acuity was one Lisa would never understand.

Nonetheless, Lisa continued. "Secondly, I realize that while it was selfish of me to attempt to forcibly extract samples from you, I am still interested in said samples, and I would be very much interested in obtaining locks of the protein filament from your follicular area through more diplomatic means. In other words, may I please have a sample of your hair?"

Leni jumped back a bit as Lisa finished her statement. "Ew, no! I could never go outside again if you took some of my precious hair!"

For a brief moment, the child prodigy reached for the scissors in her pocket. Of course she wouldn't get what she wanted! That's why she had to resort to more 'covert' methods in the first place! Why did she even bother!?

As her hands dug into her pocket however, she stopped and looked up at Leni, who had a genuine expression of fear plastered onto her face. Lisa stood for a moment as she recalled what was said last night. Benevolent actions for the good of mankind are only helpful if everyone else is accepting of it. Leni did  _not_  look like someone that was willing to accept what was coming.

"Very well. Have a good day."

Without another word, Lisa turned around, made her way towards the door and left. Thinking about it now, there was a certain other person that might be more receptive to the idea…

Lisa walked through the hallway to the room across from her own. As she walked through the entrance, Lola could be seen hosting another one of her tea parties, and Lana could be seen tending to her many pets.

The child prodigy approached Lana and took a deep breath. "Lana, would you be so kind enough as to assist me with a particular study I have in mind?"

The grease monkey turned away from feeding Hopps and faced her younger sister. "Sure! What's up?"

"I was wondering if you would be willing to give up a lock of your hair to further my understanding of genetic engineering." Lisa held her thumb and forefinger a fraction of an inch apart to emphasize the amount of hair she needed.

Lana paused for a bit, before shrugging with a smile. "Sure! Just a little bit won't hurt!"

Lisa reached into her pocket and pulled out her scissors. Lana stood in place as the child prodigy ran her fingers through the rough blonde hair, measured out a small portion, and made the cut. The hair was caught and stored in test tubes pulled from Lisa's pocket.

"Excellent. I am grateful for your contribution." With that, Lisa turned and walked back towards her lab, now with a sample in hand.

As she entered her room, the 4-year-old thought back to what had occurred just now. Sure, Leni didn't want to give her hair away, but Lisa found someone else that did. If Leni didn't like the idea of losing her hair, it didn't matter if she might live in a future where world hunger is solved or superior babies were created by will. Leni would never treat Lisa with contempt, and Lisa should return the favor. Lana on the other hand was a willing contributor, and she is sure to be supportive of whatever grandiose plan Lisa may have going forward.

Lisa's work may be for the good of humanity, but the world has to accept her and her intentions before they are ready to accept the fruits of her labor. Acceptance starts with honesty, clarity, and trust.

Only then, can the ends truly justify the means.


	2. Instant Repair Gun

Safety first, always double check, there are tons of overused tropes that everyone, their mom, and their cat should know. However, few would disagree that these repetitive messages serve a valuable purpose in reminding people how to maintain proper conduct for their well-being. A little bit of wisdom never hurt anyone.

Lisa Loud could be seen in her lab, mixing arbitrary chemical ingredients for various results as usual. If she was completely honest with herself, half of the things she did weren't even practical; she just did them because they looked cool (good luck getting her to admit that). Truly a wonder how the colors change before her very eyes and ingredients react with each other very differently with each unique combination.

This time however, Lisa was seriously working on something. She was on her way towards creating an unquestionably 100% effective disinfectant. It always annoyed her how anything designed to kill germs would claim to only kill 99.99% or some arbitrarily repeating number of digits. Even if these numbers were only for legal reasons, someone had to close the gap eventually.

Of course, a concoction with a 100% success rate in destroying any and all microbial life is dangerous to handle, and Lisa had to be very careful. She dipped her dropper into a bottle of Hydrogen Peroxide, and her hands trembled as they moved over the beaker. Once the nozzle was positioned, she squeezed.

KABLAM!

The force of the explosion launched Lisa back from her desk into the hallway. She landed with a thud, and remained still for a few seconds, having been dazed from the impact.

A few seconds later, Lisa lifted her upper body up, took off her now soot-covered glasses, and rubbed her eyes. Wrong or missing ingredients, poor timing, it's a real wonder how she's still alive after several months of reckless experimentation, especially considering how often  _something_  went wrong.

The child prodigy took her glasses and wiped the lenses with her sweater as she observed the all-too-familiar wreckage ahead of her. Broken shards of glass everywhere, burnt pieces of paper, a little bit of ash in the area, with the number of instances in which she had such a mess occur, it made her wonder why she even bothered to clean up after herself. All the blueprints and test tubes she would never get back, such a waste!

"AAAAHHH! My precious tiara!"

The pageant queen could be heard screaming in the room across from Lisa's. As the toddler lifted herself up, she turned towards the source of the commotion.

"Charles needed a chew toy, and I couldn't find mine, so I used your Tiara instead. What's the big deal?!"

"I was gonna wear that for my Ms. Youthful and Beautiful pageant next week!"

"Why don't you wear one of other 10 other tiaras you own then, huh Ms. bratty and snotty?"

Lola tackled Lana, and yet another one of their twin fights ensued. It seems Lisa wasn't the only one that had lost a prized possession of hers just now. Common problem resulting from human error or carelessness. Unfortunately, these mishaps are a fact of life.

Speaking of which, things did tend to get destroyed a lot. Lisa put a hand up to her chin and tapped her foot in place as memories started flooding back to her from the past week…

_"That was Bobby's gift to me for our 10th weekiversary! I literally told you to only wash it with cold water and you ruined it!"_

_"Lynn, did you hit the baseball through the window again!?"_

_"You defanged Edwin just for a dumb pun… I have ways of punishing you that extend beyond this realm…"_

The toddler scratched her head as she continued to spectate the fight unfolding before her eyes. Clearly, loss of possessions wasn't a problem reserved for inordinately intelligent 4-year-old girls. Just about everyone in the family had a cause for the things they lost. The responsibility didn't just fall upon the owners of said items; in a family as big as hers, it was always difficult to not have  _someone_  meddle with your belongings. Wouldn't it be nice if everyone could just undo all the mistakes they've ever made? Just pretend they didn't happen?

The child prodigy's eyes lit up just as Lola and Lana finally broke apart from each other. Erasing one's memory of any memory regarding lost possessions would be impractical, but undoing mistakes definitely had potential. Lisa squealed in excitement before she turned and dashed into her lab, eager to start immediately. Isaac Newton had his falling apple, and Lisa had her 3000th explosion in a row. Soon, explosions would be the least of her worries!

The squealing stopped as she approached the desk and paused. The same wreckage was still there since a few minutes ago. Lisa adjusted her eyeglasses and sighed as she reached for the broom and dustpan off to the side. Oh boy, that's gonna be a fun one to deal with. It'll all be worth it though, if she can get through  _this one thing_  without a hitch. No explosions, just this once!

* * *

Lisa walked up to Lori and Leni's room with a grin on her face as she pushed a cart towards the room. In the cart was a projector, and a device that resembled a gun of some sorts, with some antennas protruding from the front where a bulb is placed, presumably where the device should fire. On top of the device was a screen and a knob, but otherwise the device had all the same features you would expect a firearm to have. Today was a special sibling meeting, for it would be the one where her device would be unveiled to the family that needed it most.

As the 4-year-old entered the room, she found that the only ones present were Lori and Leni. Lori was lying on her bed texting away as usual, while Leni was at the sewing machine trying to repair the stretched-out shirt from earlier. It seemed as though Lisa was early compared to everyone else. Ah well, time to prepare. Lisa quickly positioned the cart in a way where the projector would be facing the blank wall. By the time she was finished, Lana and Lola had walked into the room.

Lisa made her way to the rug, sat down, and started twiddling her fingers as more siblings flooded into the room. Each of her siblings would come in one by one, and each time felt longer than the last. Her time to shine will come soon, just gotta be patient.

As Luna finally arrived from her jam session at the garage, the meeting started a little after 11.

Lori stood up to the podium and smacked her shoe against the wooded surface. "I call this sibling meeting to order!"

The 4-year-old raised her hand. "If I may, eldest sibling, I would like permission to commence this meeting with a demonstration of my latest creation"

The young woman facepalmed. "If this is about the four-assed monkey you made last week…"

"A brilliant breakthrough in its own right, but I believe you all will find this work of art far more interesting." Lisa interrupted.

All the siblings groaned as Lori smacked the makeshift gavel once more. "Alright, Lisa has the floor."

"Thank you, dear sister!" Lisa ran up the podium as Lori dragged a stool towards it. After climbing up the stool, the child prodigy produced a clicker from her pocket, took a deep breath, and started."

"As you all may have noticed, it is exceedingly difficult to maintain the condition of any given superficial possessions you may have. The cause can be identified as human error of the individual who own said item, or the family's tendencies to meddle with each other's affairs."

Lisa pressed the clicker as various scenes of personal belongings being lost or destroyed were shown on screen. Comic books, tiaras, soccer balls, the shower curtain-

"Hold on, what are you doing with footage of the bathroom?" Lincoln asked with an inquisitive stare.

"Uh never mind that!" A mischievous grin formed on Lisa's face as she quickly pressed through the scenes. "In any case, a smidgen of introspection has to come in at some point as more worldly goods are destroyed." The traditional neutral expression of the child prodigy returned to her face. "Isn't there an easier way to fix this? Couldn't we all just pretend these things didn't happen?"

"Sigh, it's not like we can ever form attachments to anything before reality decides to rain cruelty upon you like it always does." Lucy curled up in a ball and started cradling her knees.

"What's gone is gone dude. Letting go is a fact of life." Luna sighed as she strummed her acoustic guitar with a sorrowful tone.

"Correction: letting go  _was_  a fact of life." Lisa rubbed her hands excitedly against each other as she reached for the device in the cart and raised them above her head. "Behold! The Instant Repair Gun!"

"This handheld temporal aperture device can be aimed at any given item or set of items in which you find the condition to be unsatisfactory." Lisa lowed the gun down to her chest and started adjusting some knobs. "Simply adjust the area of the blast and the amount of time between now and the given time you wish to revert the item back to, and the items hit by the blast will be reverted to whatever state may have had a higher level of dopamine released into your brain. Observe."

Lisa walked up to Lola, who was busy admiring herself in her mirror. The 4-year-old swiped the pageant queen's tiara off her head, and immediately broke it in half, resulting in a collective gasp from the rest of the inhabitants.

Lola broke her gaze at the mirror, and immediately turned around to face the brunette that had just ruined another one of her prized possessions. "WHY YOU LITTLE-"

As the 6-year old prepared to lunge at the child prodigy, Lisa threw the pieces into the air, aimed the repair gun at the pieces, and fired. A bolt of lightning emitted from the device, hitting what used to be a tiara, as it was enveloped with a yellow-green hue. The rest of the siblings couldn't help but stare up at the visual spectacle that was unfolding before their eyes.

A few seconds later, the lightning dissipated, as a little puff of smoke exhausted itself from the device. A now fully intact tiara could be seen falling towards the ground as the rest of the siblings collectively dropped their jaws at what they had just witnessed.

Lisa blew the tip of her repair gun. "I rest my case."

"That's amazing Lisa!" Lincoln exclaimed. "Can you fix my comic book?"

Lynn raised her arm and waved it around. "Ooh ooh what about my soccer ball?"

"Edwin's dental work."

"The shirt I stretched out!"

Lisa beamed as more requests came at her way. It wasn't the first time but being of a service to your family is always a good feeling. It seems this time her family truly appreciated her work instead of resented them.

The child prodigy grinned, then charged up her gun once more. "One at a time, if you please."

* * *

KABLAM!

Another explosion, and another mess to clean up… once upon a time that was an inconvenience. Now, all it took was a simple blast of the repair gun, and everything would be okay. As a nice side bonus, Lisa found that the repair gun allowed her to engage in trial-and-error experiments that would normally be very costly and time-consuming to conduct.

For the 50th time in a row, Lisa grabbed the repair gun from the corner of the room, turned some knobs, aimed at the desk, then fired. A stream of lightning blasted the desk, enveloping it in an all-too-familiar yellowish green hue, dissipating after a few seconds. The explosion might as well have never happened.

"Dude! I need another blast for my axe! Care to hit me up brah?"

Lisa pinched the bridge of her nose and made her way towards the hallway. "Coming…"

As she approached the door, Luna could be seen with another broken neck for her guitar, and a sheepish grin on her face.

The 4-year-old sighed "I would think by now that you'd adopt more  _controlled_  methods of engaging in your musical activities"

The aspiring rock-star held the guitar out in front of her. "You kidding dude? Rocking out is all about being passionate! Do you know how much vibes are killed when I wanna let it all loose, but can't? These things are expensive man!"

 _"Well, did say this device was for everyone…_ " Lisa adjusted some knobs on her device and fired at the Guitar. Within seconds, it was as good as new.

"Thanks Lis!" Luna quickly picked up Lisa, who struggled as the 15-year-old gave her a squeeze. Soon after, Luna put her sister down and dashed downstairs with the repaired guitar, presumably to rock out in the Garage again.

The child prodigy turned to enter her lab again. At least she wouldn't have to see a mess every other time she walked into the room anymore. Now about that perfect disinfectant-

"Lisa! Come downstairs! I hope you're chill with fixing the freezer!" Luan could be heard laughing in the distance.

Facepalm. At first, Lisa didn't mind fixing up all of her siblings' belongings. She was giving everyone an equal share, and somehow, she got a warm and fuzzy feeling inside that couldn't exactly be explained each time she did so. It was all worth it, especially since she herself benefited from the device.

Recently however, their behavior has shown to be markedly  _different_  from before. They tended to be more… reckless these days. Maybe it's just because she started actively paying attention to cases where items got destroyed, but it felt like things were being broken at least twice as often now.

Lisa dragged herself downstairs with the repair gun in her arms, passing by the living room into the kitchen. In front of her was a refrigerator with smoke exiting from where the freezer door should be. Blue paint splattered everywhere, including the freezer itself, Luan, the floor, tables, and an unamused Lincoln glaring at his older sister.

"Man, I can't believe people still fall for the exploding paint in the freezer prank! You'd think word would get out eventually!" Luan maniacally laughed to herself.

"Just blast it already…" Lincoln sighed.

"Hold still…" The child prodigy adjusted some knobs and put her palm to her face as she fired. Same old routine of lightning emitting from the blaster, fridge being enveloped with a yellowish-green hue, and the result being a brand-new fridge.

"Okay, now can I  _please_  have my ice cream Luan?"

Lisa walked off as that exchange continued between the two siblings, palm still on her face. That was the 5th time Luan asked the 4-year-old to fix the fridge, and it was for the same dumb prank every time! Couldn't she at least think of something original for once?

"WOOHOO! GUYS CHECK THIS OUT!"

Lisa stumbled as she heard the sudden scream from outside the house. The child prodigy let out an exasperated sigh as she simply walked to the source of the voice, barely contributing to the rumble of footsteps from her other siblings making a mad dash for the yard.  _Oh, this can't be good._

As she stepped out the door, the toddler noticed a rather large shadow being cast in front of her. When she turned her head up to identify the source of the shadow, the frown on her face was replaced with widened eyes and dropped jaws.

In front of Lisa and the rest of the siblings was an elaborate obstacle course about 10 feet high and covering the majority of the backyard. There were many twists, turns, loops, hurdles, all sorts of things you would imagine on an obstacle course. Heads started turning wildly as the siblings tried to identify the missing member within the labyrinth of pipes and slides.

"I'M UP HERE GUYS!"

The siblings collectively looked up to see Lynn and Lana, standing on the roof waving their arms around in front of the slide where the obstacle course would begin.

"Lynn Loud's Extreme Skateboarding Obstacle Course! Only the best of the best can make it out alive in this dastardly death valley, but Lynn Loud is number one and you all know it!"

"Obstacle building courtesy of Lana!" The 6-year-old whipped out a wrench, tossed it in the air, caught it as it made its descent to the ground, and stuffed it back into her pocket.

Lori cupped her hands around her mouth to form a makeshift megaphone. "Lynn Jr, you literally better get down here or I'm telling mom and dad!"

"Yeah!" Lincoln piped up. "How did you even make this without us noticing?"

"How does Lisa make half the things she makes at all? Try explaining to us how that works!" Lana retorted.

The siblings collectively paused. They had to admit, nothing Lisa did ever made sense if you thought too hard about it. How the hell does a repair gun work anyway? How did she make one so quickly?

"Forget that!" Lola exclaimed. "Lynn could destroy the whole backyard and really hurt herself!"

"Then Lisa can just use her repair gun! Everything's gonna be totally fine!" Lynn laid her skateboard down and positioned herself in front of the obstacle course.

The siblings collectively yelled and pleaded for the athlete to stop, to no avail. The sports fanatic was already well on their way to stepping onto the skateboard, ready to kick off.

"It's go-time!" Lynn kicked off, collectively extracting screams from everyone else.

Lynn zipped down the tall slide all the way to the bottom, where a sudden curve upwards protruded from the end. She soared upwards as she skated off from the edge, through a hoop, into another elevated slide nearby.

The Loud siblings could only watch as Lynn made her descent into madness through the obstacle course. What started off with covered eyes and dropped jaws eventually turned into cheering and waving arms. They had to admit, watching the sports girl blaze through the obstacle course was  _pretty freaking awesome._  Words of encourage kept coming as Lynn continued dash, slide, duck, dodge, and crazy conceivable feats to pass through the home-made death trap.

"Woo! This is awesome!" As Lynn jumped off another slide, she raised an arm above her head and cheered, while holding onto the board with her other.

In that moment, Lynn crashed skateboard first into a slide, as she didn't quite make it onto the smooth surface. The athlete bounced off, and the Loud siblings could only watch as the 13-year-old started her descent towards impending doom.

After what felt like years, Lynn finally hit the ground, and a set of cracks could be heard from her body upon impact.

A deafening silence resonated within the area as the Loud siblings stared with dropped jaws and wide-open eyes. Lynn Loud was writhing in pain as she started to sob in the…  _compromising_ position she found herself in. Legs and arms were positioned in a way that  _wasn't normal_. Bent in  _weird ways._  Suffice it to say, the sight was not pleasant.

"Uhh… Lisa?" Lola tugged at the child prodigy's sweater. "Now would be a pretty good time to use the repair gun…"

Yet Lisa stood frozen in place as a million thoughts raced throughout her mind.  _"This wasn't supposed to happen… I was supposed to increase convenience… share the increase in quality of life… I encouraged poor habits… someone got seriously hurt…"_

The 4-year-old removed her glasses and started rubbing her eyes. "The repair gun was specifically designed for non-sentient items.…"

Lynn continued to twitch and moan as all the siblings sans Lisa ran up to the poor girl. Some started patting her, some tried giving comforting words of consolation, Lily even gave her a kiss where the 'boo-boo' was.

"Isn't there anything you can do?" Lincoln cried.

"I wasn't anticipating a funeral this early..." Lucy sighed.

"Poor Lynn…" Leni moped.

"What are we doing just standing here?! We literally have to call our parents!" Lori exclaimed as she frantically dialed on her smartphone.

Lisa still stood in place, taking in the cacophony of noises ahead of her. Clearly, this was a very unfortunate situation to find themselves in, almost worst-case scenario even. The child prodigy looked down at the device in her arms that enabled all the shenanigans to occur. The power to instantaneously retcon any mistake and unfavorable happenstance is very potent indeed, but as the common trope goes, with great power comes great responsibility.

The child prodigy now looked up ahead, where Lynn still struggled in place. The repair gun might not have been made for live human beings, but it's basically the same principle, right? A little bit of time travel magic and Lynn's back to the way she was?

"I have to try…" Lisa took out a screwdriver, screwed open a cover on the bottom of the gun, adjusted some knobs within, then closed it up. With a twist of a few more knobs on the exterior, the 4-year-old aimed the repair gun at the injured athlete.

"Stand back siblings! I need to get only Lynn in the blast!"

"Dude! You just said that gun doesn't work on people!" Luna exclaimed.

"Trust me! I know what I'm doing!" Lisa yelled.

She didn't know what she was doing.

The child prodigy continued pointing for a few seconds as the siblings got out of the way. For everything that could go great, there were a billion others that could go totally wrong. Lynn might get hurt even more by the blast, she might be permanently deformed… Hell, what if she was fixed  _too much?_  Turned into something we don't understand!? If this blast failed to fix Lynn, or even hurt her more than she already was, then they were done for. Lisa Loud would never forgive herself.

With trembling hands, Lisa squeezed her eyes shut and pulled the trigger.

A jolt of lightning blasted out from the gun, enveloping Lynn in an all-too-familiar yellowish-green hue. The siblings watched the same visual spectacle they had witnessed several times before with greater intent. With the amount of craziness that they had went through the past few days, all they could do was put complete faith in the person that enabled all the shenanigans.

After what felt like decades, the yellow-green hue dissipated. Lynn Jr. could be seen lying on the ground. Especially notable was the complete lack of injuries; bruises, broken bones, scratches, nothing. Lynn Loud Jr. had been repaired.

The sports fanatic hoisted herself up and rubbed her eyes. "Ugh… what happened?"

"You're literally okay! That's what happened!"

All the siblings sans Lisa once again ran up to Lynn, this time to give her a giant group hug. Lisa slowly opened her eyes and simply stood in place, as she observed the collective spread of joy over their now-recovered sibling.

_"What have I done…"_

After the rest of the siblings released each other from their group hug, they turned towards the one sister who apparently didn't join in, with a look of concern collectively manifesting themselves on each of their faces.

"What's wrong Lisa?"

Lisa loosened the muscles in her arm, dropped the gun to the side, and sighed. "I attribute myself as the cause for the tragedy that we had just witnessed. I enabled reckless behavior in this household that could only be exacerbated by a device that allows one to act as though such actions don't have consequences. I have bestowed upon us a power that should never have existed in the first place, and as such, it is my responsibility to set things straight."

"Woah hold on a sec Lisa." Lincoln holds his hand out in a stop gesture. "You didn't do anything wrong! You made something to make our lives a little bit easier, but instead we abused it!"

"Yeah… I said rocking out was all about passion, but there's more to it than that!" Luna piped up. "My guitars have stories behind them, and if I keep breaking them all the time, it's like I don't even care for them!"

"I used the gun to pull the same dumb prank over and over, when really I could have been coming up with new material this whole time!" Luan added.

"I should have been more careful with the chew toy I lost!" Lana added.

"And I shouldn't have left my tiara lying around out in the open…" Lola sighed.

Lori rubbed the back of her head and glanced off to the side. "Sometimes we lose things, and that really sucks. But that doesn't mean that we can't be more careful of what happens to our belongings. If they mean something to us, then we should treat them that way."

"So, what do we say? How about we take down this obstacle course using  _traditional_  means? No magic or repair guns, just the hard work of 11 siblings working together." Lincoln extends his arm towards Lisa with a welcoming grin on his face.

Lisa stares at Lincoln's hand for a few seconds, unsure of how to respond. On one hand, she was had created a device that enabled what had just occurred, by creating the illusion that actions no longer have consequences. However, there was something so earnest and genuine about the way Lincoln was extending his hand. Warmth and acceptance radiated from the way Lincoln was smiling, and Lisa couldn't find it in herself to refuse. It seemed as though they truly wanted to make amends.

The toddler grinned as she accepted Lincoln's extended hand, gripping it with her own comparatively small hand. "Operation take down the obstacle course is a go!"

* * *

Lisa could be found at her lab again, working with arbitrary chemicals like always. Her quest to create the 100% foolproof disinfectant was still ongoing, and she had to make considerable rearrangements to her schedule. A few more days were dedicated to making sure all the necessary precautions were in place. Keeping track of ingredients, protection of surroundings, proper studies conducted beforehand to assure certainty of results, there were tons of extra steps that had to be taken to assure nothing would go wrong. Of course, there were no guarantees, but a little bit of wisdom never hurt anyone.

A dropper was dipped in Hydrogen Peroxide, and a small portion was quickly extracted. As Lisa pulled the dropper out of the bottle, she slowly moved her hands over to the top of the beaker. She stuck the dropper inside the beaker, and squeezed an eye shut as she carefully released a single drop.

A few seconds pass with nothing occurring. Phew! No explosions this time around. She was in the clear.

Just as the toddler relaxed, a rather audible sizzling sound could be heard from the beaker. Lisa lifted the beaker to observe the contents closer to her eyes, only to find a clear substance leaking from the bottom. As droplets landed on the desk, they burned through into the drawer with the blueprints within, leaving rather obvious holes on the top.

Lisa gasped as she observed what had just occurred to the contents of her desk. She frantically opened drawers and started inspecting the damage. Many of them were completely intact, but some of the blueprints had noticeable holes where there should be vital information for the project. It seemed as though she could never get a break from losing her work so often.

The child prodigy turned towards a certain device placed at the corner of the room. It was the same device that caused her family to go insane and seriously injure a person, but it was also a device that could bring joy to those that believed their lost possessions to be gone forever.

Lisa approached the device, picked it up, and adjusted some knobs again. Her safety precautions didn't protect against everything, but burning a few holes was a step up from an explosion. When the repair gun wasn't being abused, it truly was an overall increase in quality of life.

It was then that a soft knock could be heard from the door.

"Proceed"

The door opened slowly, revealing Lynn at the entrance. She was hiding something behind her back with a sheepish grin on her face.

"Hey Lisa."

Lisa adjusted her glasses as she walked up to the sports fanatic. "Greetings, elder sibling. I have to assume that you are present to obtain something of interest from me."

Lynn's eyes shifted left and right as she stood in place, hands still behind her back. "Uhh yeah… I… kinda need you to use your repair gun again."

"I presume the worldly possession in question is the broken hockey stick you've attempted to hide behind your back" Lisa responded with a monotone voice.

"Is it that obvious?" Lynn gave a nervous laughter.

Lisa put her hand up to her chin. "It has occurred to me that you are symptomatic of decreased levels of serotonin. I see no reason to dance around the question, yet you seem to think otherwise. What of this situation?"

The athlete revealed an inordinately bent hockey stick behind her back and threw it in the space between the two kids.

Lynn sighed. "I… wasn't sure if I should make you use the repair gun again because of what happened 3 days ago. I wasn't doing anything crazy, I swear!" Lynn exclaimed with raised arms. "I was just playing hockey like I always do, and this stick totally borked on me!"

Lisa scratched her head. Thinking about it now, it had been 3 days since anyone came to the child prodigy asking for a blast.

"I see no cause for alarm. You of all people should be very well aware that the repair gun doesn't discriminate based on reason or intent behind destruction."

"But we were being total jerks about it!" Lynn cried. "We kept breaking things we didn't have to break just for fun!"

Lisa crossed her arms. "Yes, and they were questionable actions indeed. However, the important thing to discern from these mishaps is that you, and seemingly the rest of the family, have learned from your mistakes and are able to better conduct yourselves going forward. I see no issue with using this repair gun in line with my original vision to remedy true accidents."

Lynn hesitated. "So… you're not mad?"

"Not in the slightest."

A moment of silence passed between the siblings.

"I forgot to say this earlier, but thanks for saving me."

Lynn's right hand formed a fist, and she proceeded to give the 4-year-old a noogie, giving a small chuckle along the way. Lisa squeezed her eyes shut as her hair was ruffled under the pressure.

After Lynn released the child from the playful attack, Lisa looked upwards towards the young athlete.

Lisa pressed some buttons on the repair gun. "So, what say we proceed with this operation?"

"Can't break even more than it already is, right?" Lynn shrugged with a smile.

The 4-year-old grinned as she aimed her repair gun at the hockey stick and fired. The same jolt of lightning and yellowish-green hue could be seen once more. This time however, instead of being a routine, the device was the safety net it was intended to be.


	3. Mind-Reader (part 1)

"Being in charge." A simple 3-word phrase with the words meaning little by themselves. When put together however, those words form a phrase that conveys a necessity for leadership, responsibility, fairness, and understanding. Whether the person in charge is truly faithful to those words is a different story.

This was an ideal Lori found herself having to uphold once again, as she laid on the couch texting none other than Bobby Santiago. In front of her was the TV playing reruns of The Dream Boat.

Shwoop! A long-awaited incoming text from Bobby.

_"Still ready to go on our date tomorrow babe?"_

With a gleeful expression, the young woman almost immediately started tapping her screen.

_"I'm literally so excited! I heard their eel-stuffed samosas are amazing!"_

Lori just barely stifled a squeal of excitement as she put her phone in her lap and shifted her attention towards the romantic drama on screen. Currently, Karen could be seen dating another one of the crew members. The person in question was a professional chef, and they were in the kitchen making croissants, while exchanging flirtatious comments along the way. Oh, just look how lovely the budding romance is! How much Lori would give to have a similar experience with Bobby! Lori could see it now: Bobby helping Lori knead the dough, them expressing their love for each other as they shaped the dough into shapes of a crescent moon, appreciating each other's company as they waited for the oven to finish baking-

The Dream Boat suddenly disappeared from the screen, and was replaced with a group of young girls, flaunting themselves with expensive jewelry and wearing  _way too much makeup_.

Lori turned her head, and her eyes landed on the offender to the far left of the couch.

"What was that!? You know the rules, first come first serve!"

"Go away!" Lola growled as she crossed her arms, remote in hand.

Lori rolled her eyes. "Lola! I'm really not up to doing this right now…"

Lola harrumphed as she hugged the remote even tighter to her chest.

Lori stood up from the couch, walked up to Lola, and glared at her, hands on her hips.

"What is your problem? Give me the remote back!"

"You go away or I'll tell everyone about that time you threw out Luan's joke book while rummaging through her room!" Lola yelled.

Lori gasped. "Who told you about that?!"

A smug grin formed on the pageant queen's face. "Oh, you just told me. But there are things you  _didn't_  tell me that I know about!"

"Fine!" Lori barked. "Keep that remote if you're gonna be a selfish brat about it!"

The young woman gave an exasperated sigh as she walked off towards the stairs. Lola grumbled as she continued to watch the pageant show happening on the TV.

"I can't believe Lola would do that to me!" Lori huffed under her breath. Lola had her moments with the tantrums, and that was bound to happen one way or another. But did she really have to stoop down so low as to blackmail Lori? How great would it be to know just how Lola planned on blackmailing Lori? How would she feel if  _Lori_  blackmailed  _her?_

As Lori approached the top of the stairs, a certain brunette in a green turtleneck sweater and brown sweatpants came into view, scribbling nondescript formulas on the wall with a pencil.

"Lisa! What did I say about writing on the wall!?"

The 4-year-old continued scribbling on the wall. "You may have implied dissatisfaction with my behavior regarding the inscriptions I leave on the wall, but I hardly believe I took any consideration on whether to heed those words at all."

Lori facepalmed. Leave it to Lisa to come up with a smart-ass response like that. The young woman bent down, grabbed the top of Lisa's head, and twisted Lisa to face the child prodigy directly, eye to eye.

"Well then, consider  _this_  when I make it  _very clear_  that I don't want you to scribble on the wall!"

Lisa stared blankly into Lori's eyes with the same neutral expression she usually defaulted to.

Finally, Lisa sighed and glanced off to the side. "Fine… arbitrary social regulations emerge victorious once again…"

Once Lori let go of Lisa's head, the 4-year-old turned towards her lab.

Lori stood up straight and cleared her throat audibly for the child prodigy to hear. "There's a certain wall here that needs cleaning!"

Lisa sighed as she made a U-turn towards the bathroom. Lori watched as the child entered the bathroom, emerged with a bucket of water and a wet rag, walked up to the pencil markings, and went to town with wiping them clean.

"I could never understand what's going on in your head…" Lori sighed, as she turned left and made her way towards her room. What's the deal with Lisa constantly writing blueprints or test results on the wall? Didn't she have plenty of paper to write her own work on?

As Lori reached for the doorknob, she paused. What if she could see what was going on in Lisa's head? Or Lola's? Or anyone's? What could they constantly be thinking about all the time? What could they be hiding from her?

Lori shook her head as she opened the door and walked over to her bed. She jumped right on and took out her phone to start texting again. The screen was lit up with a notification from Bobby:

_"I'm kinda nervous about the Japanese-Indian fusion cuisine, eels kinda weird me out"_

Lori started typing, but that resulted in several repeated attempts at typing a word, then immediately backspacing again. She just couldn't seem to figure out what she wanted to say. All because of a certain morbid curiosity that was  _literally_  killing her.

The more Lori thought about it, the more profound the weight on her shoulders became. What made it worse was that she knew there was a certain someone in the household that could totally make those  _visions_  of hers into a reality. That very person was out in the hallway writing her science gibberish, and all it took to gain closure for that undying desire to know what shouldn't be known was to ask a question. What's the worst that could happen? She just says no? Maybe make fun of her for even thinking it's possible?

Lori rolled her eyes and gave an exasperated sigh. She hoisted herself up and out of the bed, left the bedroom, and walked towards the very place where she had scolded her second youngest sister just a minute ago. The child prodigy could still be seen erasing the markings from the wall.

"Hey Lisa…" Lori waved as a sheepish grin emerged on her face. "Remember when I said I could never understand what's going on in your head?"

Lisa continued scrubbing the wall. "Quite so, the event is recent enough where it hasn't left my short-term memory at this stage. What of it?"

Lori glanced at the ground, then back at her younger sister. "Well,  _could_  I see what's going on in your mind?"

Lisa briefly paused, before continuing to scrub against the wall. "The internal cognitive functions carried out within my cerebral cortex aren't something that can be comprehended with a given individual of your mental capacity. I suggest engaging in academic rigor of your own level before attempting to take strides you're clearly unfit to handle."

"Can you make me something that can show me what's in your mind?" Lori meekly asked as she started backing away.  _"I knew it! This was a dumb idea!"_

Lisa stopped scrubbing. She threw her rag into the bucket next to her and turned towards Lori, pinching the bridge of her nose.

"You are in essence searching for a way to read minds, are you not? It just so happens that I conveniently possess that very device you are insinuating"

_"God it sounds even more dumb when she says it like that – wait what!?"_

Lori immediately stopped backing away. Lisa Loud just claimed that she had a device that could  _read someone's mind_. Putting it bluntly, that idea already sounded dumb from the start. Somehow, it sounded even more stupid hearing it from the girl herself.

The young woman crossed her arms and gave an inquisitive stare at the child prodigy. "You're not messing with me, are you?"

Lisa rolled her eyes. "You take me for a simpleton that purposely spreads misinformation for the sake of a joke? I would think you'd know of myself and my habits by now, but clearly you have much to learn aside from academics."

Lori leans forward, looking into the child prodigy's eyes with great intent. Again, same neutral expression as always. If Lisa was pulling a prank, then she was putting an extraordinary amount of effort into it.

"Alright" Lori said with a hint of hesitation. "Let's talk about this in the lab."

Lisa turns and makes her way towards her room, with Lori following a few feet behind. As they both entered, Lori softly closed the door behind her, as to not make a sound.

Lori watched as the child prodigy started rummaging through her room. Thinking about it now, the room was an incredible mess. Papers all over the place, remains of experiments gone awry, all things contributing to the pile that ultimately was the lab. Lisa only added to the disorderly nature of the room as she continued searching.

"Ahah!" Lisa exclaimed. She pulled her arm out from a pile of arbitrary machines, holding something between her fingers. The child prodigy turned and approached Lori, holding the trinket out in her palm for her older sister to see.

Lori tilted her head as she tried to get a view of the gadget in her sister's small hands. It was a concave piece of glass that resembled contact lenses of some sort.

"What's this?" Lori asked as she pinched the lens-like device up with her fingers. As she bought it closer to her eyes, it became apparent that there were inscriptions of some sort on the glass.

Lisa still had her hand out in front of her. "I suggest you exercise caution while handling my creations without a clear understanding of their purpose or the mechanics behind said devices." With a beckoning gesture from Lisa, Lori put the device back into the 4-year-old's hand.

"What you have so carelessly picked up just now is one part of a device that employs various neuroimaging techniques to look into a person's mind and decrypt the brain waves, synaptic transmissions, or any imaginable given function of the nervous system. This information is translated, and then sent to the various lobes within the brain for processing. The result should be a visual and audible approximation of what they may be thinking, put into words intelligible by an average given individual of the Homo Sapiens species."

Lori stared blankly at the child prodigy.

Lisa pinched the bridge of her nose. "You attach it to your eye, and it lets you see and hear the minds of anyone that you can see."

"So it's like a contact lens?"

A mischievous grin formed on Lisa's face as she put the tip of her index fingers together in front of her. "Eh, I believe a surgery may be involved…"

Lori glanced upwards as she put a hand up to her chin. While she didn't quite understand the scientific techno-babble Lisa used, the fact that the device would be physically grafted onto the eye did sound pretty scary. Almost life-threatening even. Then again, she had seen crazier things happen. Her sister was literally a 4-year old child prodigy with 3 Junior Nobel Prizes for crying out loud! Just think of all the amazing things possible with the power to read minds! She could expose or blackmail people that really grinded her gears, no one could ever cross or lie to her again, maybe read the minds of really smart people in class and get good answers on tests, the possibilities were endless! Here she was, being given the absolutely unimaginable opportunity to have all these dreams realized! Wouldn't it be stupid  _not_  to take it?

Lori glanced to the side as she faced down towards her sister. "Alright, how are we gonna do this?"

"Ah ah ah! Not so fast!" Lisa put out a hand making a 'stop' sign in front of her. "First, the terms and conditions."

Lori's eyes widened as she heard those dreaded words. Of course Lisa would make her sign terms and conditions. "Riiiight of course, terms and conditions…" Lori sheepishly grinned.

Lisa dashed off to her desk, grabbed a piece of paper and a pencil from her desk, quickly scribbled for a few seconds, and returned to Lori with a full-blown written contract, legal text and everything.

"Given that you will inevitably avoid reading the contract in its entirety, I'll take it upon myself to elucidate the greatest points of interest for both parties involved." Lisa cleared her throat.

"Item one: I, Lisa Marie Loud, shall be exempt from any attempts at discerning the internal cognitive functions happening within my brain. The device shall refuse to function if such attempts at reading my thoughts are made.

"Item two: I, Lisa Marie Loud, shall be given the right to extract any conscious and unconscious thoughts that may be swimming about in your gray matter while you are in use of this mind-reading device.

"Item three: I, Lisa Marie Loud, shall not be responsible for any potential accidents that may occur from this inherently risky operation. Quite bluntly, we are talking about grafting a piece of glass onto an extremely sensitive organ facilitating basic sight, this shouldn't even have to be said.

"Finally, item four: You, Lori Marie Loud, shall be responsible for driving me to community college for the next week so that I may attend the lectures I am due to teach without delay."

Lisa lowered the contract and raised her head to face the 17-year-old.

Beads of sweat started forming on Lori's head. Of course, she wasn't expecting to get away with using a mind-reading device scot-free, but these terms were really intimidating, to say the least. Lisa was essentially threatening the ultimate blackmail with all the little secrets she would learn about her older sister. Wasn't the point of the device to let  _Lori_  blackmail  _her_?

Yet even with a slight shift from the original vision, Lori would still be given a power that could only be bestowed upon a number of people in the world countable with her right hand. She wouldn't use it for  _evil_ , right? Maybe her intentions were a bit  _selfish_ , but the people who would have her wrath incurred on them  _clearly_  deserved it.

With shaking hands, Lori reached for the contract and the pencil in Lisa's hands. She scribbled her signature on the giant line at the bottom and handed the contract back to Lisa. The paper was almost slightly dampened by the sweat secreting itself from Lori's palms.

Lisa quickly scanned her eyes over the contract and folded it. "Expect fulfillment of my terms regarding implanting of device by tomorrow morning."

Lori watched as the child prodigy turned and walked towards her desk. That was it then. No turning back now. She was officially locked in.

As Lori left the lab and started walking towards her room, her heart palpitated and the weight on her shoulders increased even further. She had just struck a deal almost unfathomable to any other person on this planet, and she would be given a power no one else could understand. At the same time, the possibilities were endless. Her morbid curiosity would be satisfied once and for all and knowing the things she always wanted to know would be a surreal experience.

Lori opened the door to her room, approached her bed, and let herself fall back-first into her bed. Right now, all she needed was to relax. By next morning, everything would be taken care of, and things would be totally fine. Probably.

* * *

BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP

An arm waved around from the right of the bed, searching for the source of the incessant noise. Once Lori hand brushed past a familiar 5-inch device, she dragged it onto the bed, opened her eyes slightly, and swiped on the screen to shut the damn thing up.

Lori dragged herself out of bed with her phone in hand and walked towards the bathroom. She didn't have to wait in line, seeing as she had to be the first one up to get everyone else going.

A slight throbbing sensation radiated from Lori's right eye as she entered the bathroom. The young woman reached up to rub her eye, but then paused.

Could this be? Had Lisa successfully attached the device to Lori's eye?

The young woman's eyes widened at the realization. She leaned over to towards the mirror and stretched her right eye open for inspection. If she looked hard enough, she could see similar inscriptions to what she saw before. It seemed she was fully locked in.

After Lori went about her business showering and using the bathroom, she left the bathroom, only to see Leni waiting at the door.

"Hi Lori!" Leni smiled and waved at her older sister.

[Lori won't notice if I use this, right?]

Lori stumbled for a bit as she heard those words in her head. She could have sworn she just saw those words floating above Leni's head just now. Words don't float above people's heads.

As the oldest sibling recollected herself, she turned towards the now closed door to the bathroom. There was no other good explanation for the supernatural phenomena that had just occurred; Lori had read Leni's mind, and Leni was clearly hiding something.

Lori walked into her room, got dressed, gathered materials for her bag, and made her bed. By the time she was done, Leni had returned to the room with her trademark ducky arms and smile.

[I really hope I applied this lip gloss correctly…]

Lori tilted her head as she observed those thoughts coming from Leni. Could lip gloss be the thing Leni was trying to hide from Lori? As far as Lori knew, Leni didn't own any lip gloss of her own, which meant one thing.

"Leni…" Lori put her hands to her hips and leaned forwards towards her younger sister. "Is there something you're hiding from me?"

[Totes! How do I lie about these things again?]

Leni maintained her upbeat composure. "What are you talking about?"

Lori squinted. "You didn't happen to take any makeup from me, did you?"

[She probably sees my lip gloss! I knew I wasn't gonna put it on right!]

Leni put her hands up to her cheeks as a frantic expression manifested itself onto her face. "Ohmygoshohmygoshohmygosh I took some of your lip gloss because I think you look totes cute in it and-"

"Leni, it's fine." Lori shook her head and put her hand in a stop sign in front of her. "Just ask next time, okay?"

A grin reemerged on Leni's face. "Okay, got it!"

The ditzy fashionista dug into her pocket and produced Lori's lip gloss. Lori put her hand out in front of her, and Leni dropped the lip gloss into her older sister's palm.

Leni turned and made her way towards her own side of the room.

[Lori is so nice to me! So lucky to have her as my roommate!]

A slight smile appeared on Lori's face as she heard those words. Leni truly cared for Lori, and it wasn't like she was purposely trying to be a jerk by using the lip gloss. She just needed a little help in knowing how to ask. Lori was lucky to have  _her_  as a roommate too.

Lori finished her bedroom chores and approached the exit. As she opened the door, her eyes widened as she was greeted with the sight of 8 other siblings waiting in line.

[ What's taking Lola so long?]

[Words that rhyme with coalesce: solace, malice, chalice…]

[Ugh… Coffee… Now…]

[Crazy time signatures I haven't written in: 7/8, 9/8, 13/8…]

The collective thoughts of her siblings simultaneously appeared on top of their heads, and every time Lori focused on one of them, she would audibly hear their thoughts. Her eyes darted everywhere as she desperately tried to focus on a single thought, while also juggling the subconscious curiosity that her eyes just couldn't satisfy. Within mere seconds, Lori had trouble distinguishing anyone's thoughts from their owners, reading or having been read.

Lori grabbed her hair with both hands, teeth grit and eyes squeezed shut as she quickly walked past the siblings towards the stairs. That was definitely not something Lori was prepared for. Too many thoughts to see at once, and none of them made a single lick of sense at all!

Lori quickly dashed down to the kitchen, grabbed a bowl, a spoon, cereal, and some milk. She quickly poured herself a portion of milk and cereal, then started shoving food into her mouth. Those kids were going to come down anytime soon, and simultaneously seeing all their thoughts was an experience she did NOT want to have again.

A few minutes later, Lola walked down from the stairs and entered the kitchen with the same sour expression she was sporting the day before.

[Ughh! I still have to go to school today!]

Well, duh. Of course she did. Lori continued munching on her cereal.

Lola grabbed herself her own bowl and spoon, sat herself down at the table, poured herself a portion of cereal and milk, and started eating as well.

[Mom and dad didn't let me go to the Ms. Prissy Little Missy pageant! Can't believe them! I had to watch it from home while THEY got to live it up!]

Lori paused. She saw Lola take the remote from her, but she didn't know  _that_  happened.

A twinge of guilt manifested itself into Lori's stomach. Yes, Lola could have went about what happened yesterday in a much less bratty manner, but Lori could also have given her a bit of space.

Soon, more footsteps could be heard from the stairs. Lori grimaced as she prepared for the incoming torrent of thoughts. Maybe if she  _really_  tried to focus herself on a single person, then it wouldn't be as bad.

Lynn and Lincoln both entered the kitchen. Lori faced Lynn and concentrated.

[Aw shucks! Margot was supposed to join us for our softball game today, but she's totally down with the flu!]

There were other people within Lori's field of vision, but their thoughts were muffled and the volume was toned down. It wasn't perfect, but that would have to do. Better than dying of sensory overload.

More siblings came in, and Lori got more practice with the mind reading device. Many of their thoughts were relatively uninteresting, or things Lori would expect them to think about all the time anyway. Quite disappointing if Lori said so herself, but there would be opportunities to get more interesting information later.

"Uhh, Lori? Are you gonna finish your cereal?"

Lori gasped as she turned towards Lucy, who had just suddenly appeared behind her. "What cereal?"

[Heh, never gets old]

As Lori finished her sentence, she turned head down towards her now soggy cereal. Blegh. No way she was gonna finish that.

Lori stood up and dumped her cereal in the sink. "Alright guys! We're leaving in 10 minutes! Get yourselves packed up and in Vanzilla or you are walking!"

[Oh no! Where'd my toy spider go!]

[My school project! Is it in my bag?]

[Man Lori needs to chill once in a while!]

Lori sighed. Today was already interesting enough as it is, and the day had just started. This mind-reading device attached to her eye would take a while to fully adjust to. She had a long day ahead of her.

* * *

The drive to school was, simply put, not fun.

Being physically turned away from the rest of Lori's siblings inhabiting Vanzilla proved to be very helpful, but sometimes she would just see random thoughts from drivers nearby her that would seriously throw her off. The young woman had learned to filter out outside voices by now, but reading thoughts was a whole different magnitude.

Walking to class was also a very different experience from what Lori was expecting. She didn't know everyone in school nearly as well as she did her siblings, so she was actually getting new information when she looked into one of hundreds of different possible minds. To her disappointment however, most of them weren't very interesting. They would mostly think about video games, homework assignments they missed, some funny YouTube video they watched, etc. Not much juicy gossip to talk about.

Right now, Lori could be found with an elbow on her desk, her head resting on her hand, and a pencil absentmindedly getting twiddled in the other. She was in trigonometry class for first period, and she had just started a quiz she didn't study for at all. God, trigonometry was so boring, it  _literally_  fried her brain…

Lori simply stared at her empty sheet. She didn't understand anything. What's a sine and cosine? Derivative what now? Why the hell was she even learning this stuff? When was she ever going to have to know how much a radian is!?

Lori lifted her head and looked around her classroom. Maybe she could snag the answers off of someone else!

[This doesn't make any freaking sense!]

[Derivative, 4, 2, 8, minus 1, product rule…]

[Cosine, rad 3 over 2…]

[Lancy's a grade below me… she probably doesn't even know who I am…]

Lori grabbed her hair with both hands and buried her face in her arms with an exasperated sigh. Stealing the answers sfrom someone else sounded  _so much easier_  than it actually was. Half the people in the class didn't even know what they were doing, and she couldn't really trust anyone to have the right answers. Even if she did somehow pick out the answer, she didn't actually understand how they got there. Truly hopeless.

25 excruciating minutes later, the quiz was finally over. Lori turned in a quiz with scribbles and incoherent writing all over the page, lacking any kind of confidence in the answers she threw on the sheet. On the flip side, she put too much faith into her mind reading and its ability to save her.

Lori quickly stood up from her desk and walked out the classroom. She really needed time to herself right now.

As she scurried through the hallway, a certain thought kept repeating itself in her head:

_"I should have studied, I should have studied, I should have studied…"_

Lori approached the bathroom door, opened it, and walked inside. On the far end of the bathroom was a girl leaning against a corner and playing on her phone, whom Lori recognized as Violet. Upon Lori's arrival, the girl glanced up and looked down at her phone again.

[Ugh, this bitch again…]

Lori mustered up every little bit of composure she had left in her body to continue walking as though nothing happened. She didn't grit her teeth, her fists weren't clenched, and she didn't give death stares at anyone. On any other day, she wouldn't have even bat an eye. With her special circumstances today though, she was suddenly being revealed all kinds of things she had never even dreamed of before.

Lori walked to the other end of the bathroom where Violet was and went to the opposite corner. She took out her phone as she leaned against the corner and started tapping on her screen.

_"Bobby, I'm really nervous…"_

As Lori sent the text message, she glanced up at Violet in the other corner.

[God dammit Lori is such a self-centered brat! Always posting selfies of herself with all the 20 pieces of clothing she buys herself every week. Spoiled with rich parents that shit out kids and throw money at them like no one's business!]

Again, Lori had to use every ounce of strength in her body to not lash out at the girl rolling her eyes in front of her. She squeezed her phone even tighter than before. Lori? Selfish!? Spoiled!? How dare she for even suggesting that!

After a few seconds of similar thoughts however, Lori's grip from her phone softened, and a pained expression manifested itself onto her face. The words she was using to describe Lori was, to say the least,  _really personal_. Lori just posted pictures of clothes she bought for fun. She didn't even consider how lavish her spending habits might seem to others.

The feeling of self-conscience grew within Lori's stomach as she started tapping at her screen again.

_"Be honest… what do you think about me?"_

Seconds passing felt like hours. Lori's eyes continuously darted between the screen for the long-awaited response from a man that provided comfort and understanding, and the girl in front of her that had just violated her in ways she could never understand.

After an eternity, Violet finally put her phone in her pocket. Lori's eyes followed Violet as her classmate left the bathroom, once again with the same morbid curiosity that prompted her to gain the power to read thoughts in the first place.

[English teacher's gonna throw a bitch fit if I'm not back soon…]

As Violet closed the door behind her, Lori glanced down at her phone for the millionth time.

Still nothing.

Lori continued staring at her phone as she left the bathroom, walked through the hallway, and entered her classroom again. Not a single message from her beloved companion.

Lori dropped herself down at her desk and glanced up at the clock, just barely restraining herself from focusing herself on one of 30 other possible thoughts in the room. There was no telling what kind of demented thoughts they could be having about her.

The time was 8:42. The day had  _just_ started, and there were several more hours to go.

Lori grumbled as she buried her face within her arms and put her head down on the desk. Her heart ached to see a certain someone that she could truly trust and give herself to. They were set to go on a date later, and she  _really_  needed the one-on-one time right now. Bobby would listen and understand Lori's rants and concerns. He would give her reassurance in times of self-doubt. He would be the light in the darkness that is the thoughts constantly plaguing her mind, both her own and from others.

Lori slightly smiled to herself as memories of her moments with Bobby flooded her mind. These issues with reading minds, that's just a phase. She'll eventually get over it. She'll learn how to read minds for good. She'll get used to it.

She could only hope.

_**To be continued…** _


	4. Mind-Reader (part 2)

Bells rang, and students hurriedly packed their bags and dashed out the classroom.

[Ughhh about time!]

[6 hours, more like 6 days!]

[Long day, long drive home…]

[Finally, away from that jerk Ms. Know-it-all!]

With the chaos bought on by the end of school, 30 thoughts felt like 300. Lori had to try her absolute damnedest to avoid  _literally_  losing her mind. She could barely ever hear her own thoughts anymore, with the frequency in which the other thoughts being read stomped on what little individuality Lori had remaining.

For the majority of the school day, Lori had her head buried within her arms on the desk, preferring the comforting silence and darkness. As long as she didn't look in anyone's direction, she could avoid hearing thoughts she didn't need, or want to hear. Sometimes it couldn't be avoided though. Every time she walked in the hallway to switch classes, a proverbial ultimatum was presented each time: lose yourself to the hundreds of voices, or have eyes shut, avoid all eye contact, walk blind and destroy what existed of her social status.

That was another thing about the mind-reading device: Lori had an image to uphold, and her ability to do so deteriorated throughout the day. No one would believe or understand the unique predicament she was in at all. She had to act as though nothing was wrong, despite the world going out of its way to try and make Lori regret her decision. No stumbling or changes in facial expression in response to insulting thoughts. Maintain neutrality while walking through the hallway, in the face of hundreds of thoughts intruding upon her mind. Being able to hold a  _basic conversation_ with friends without losing track of the subject, or maybe even herself. She knew she wasn't doing a good job either, because her friends definitely noticed  _something_  was wrong.

For once in her life, the classroom was the only place Lori could find solace in. If she put her head down on the desk, her classmates wouldn't judge. At least, she could hope they didn't. They probably did, and she was not about to find out.

Lori started packing her bag, eyes glued to her possessions, and her possessions only. Relax, you're almost done with the day, you'll be out of here soon. Just gotta make it outside to Vanzilla one more time.

Zippers were zipped, straps were secured, and a purse was hoisted onto Lori's shoulder. She took a deep breath as she approached the door, hearing a few stray thoughts along the way.

With shaking hands, Lori pulled the door open, and walked outside to a familiar sight witnessed hundreds of times before. The students bustling throughout the hallway was by no means a new experience, quite the opposite actually. It was the  _additional sensory experiences_  Lori gained recently that changed everything.

Lori stepped out and walked in the same direction everyone else was going. Her legs slightly trembled as she struggled to maintain composure. Oh, how the tables have turned. The first time Lori walked through the hallway, her priority was the intrusion of ultimate privacy. Ironically, her goal now was to shield herself from intrusive thoughts. She never once imagined that she'd ever have trouble hearing her own thoughts, yet here she was, trying to find herself within a sea of complete nonsense.

[More likes! Woohoo!]

[2, 34, 20, lock open!]

[Just a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down…]

[Cloudpost, candelabra, repeal, candelabra…]

 _"Okay, think!"_  Lori focused on the furthest inanimate object in the hallway, that being a fire alarm.  _"Bobby, 6:00, Japanese-Indian-"_

[A+ I'M SO HAPPY!]

Lori pinched the bridge of her nose as cold sweat began leaking from her forehead. Couldn't she get a moment to herself for longer than a few seconds!? Who knew that walking out of the school building could ever be this big of a challenge!? It doesn't even take longer than a minute!

[Nauru, Kiribati, Micronesia, Solomon Islands…]

As Lori finally emerged from the building, she let out a breath she didn't realize she was holding. People dispersed their separate ways, and the literally intrusive thoughts became less frequent.

Lori quickly paced to Vanzilla where her three younger sisters could be seen waiting at the door.

"Come on dude, you're supposed to be here first!"

"Yeah, we almost thought you a _VAN_ doned us!"

Some more snide comments were directed at Lori as she swung the door open, dropped herself in the driver's seat, and shoved the ignition key into the hole. She didn't need to hear them. She literally saw those thoughts, albeit not from a mile away. Lori's hands gripped the steering wheel tightly as she finally formed her first coherent thought in what felt like forever: drive home, and actually have a damn thought to herself.

The three younger sisters climbed into the car with their usual chatter and noise. Lori took a deep breath, put the car into gear, and stepped on the pedal, resisting the urge to stomp full-force. The car slowly pulled out of her area, and soon found itself among the road.

"Hey Lori?" Leni asked. "Are you okay? You've been really quiet today…"

_"Where was I? Date with Bobby, 6:00, Japanese-Indian fusion cuisine. Gotta focus, stay relaxed-"_

"LORI!"

"Agh!" Lori gasped as she stomped on the break pedal. She had just barely stopped herself from crossing a red light.

"What was that!?"

Lori sighed. "I don't know- trust me, it's nothing."

She didn't have to know. No, she  _couldn't_  know. She couldn't possibly  _understand_. Oh, just how much Lori wanted to be able to tell a single soul what kind of predicament she was going through! Bestowed with an alluring power! Blinded by delusions of grandeur! Mocked by reality for her selfish desires!

Deep breaths. Lori needed to calm herself down. Heaven forbid even her own thoughts became intrusive. Hearing other thoughts was enough as it is!

With the constant chatter of her three sisters in the van, Lori continued driving towards the middle school. Just a little bit more effort, and soon she would be home free.

* * *

Bzzz!

Lori's phone vibrated in her pocket. She reached in to fish the handheld device out, glanced at the screen, and started squealing in excitement.

Bobby had finally responded.

_"Sorry babe, I've been really busy all day! I'm about to drive over to Das Ten Ten, so excited!"_

Lori started tapping at her screen with lighting speed.

_"That's okay! We'll talk at the restaurant!"_

An assortment of colors, shapes, and sizes presented itself to Lori as she opened the shared closet in her bedroom. Normally, she would wear the same tank-top and cargo shorts she had an unending supply of, but the occasion for today called for something truly special.

So many choices! She hadn't tried the blue satin dress she bought last week yet. There was a prom dress in there too, though that was probably too formal. Maybe something comfier. Enhance not overwhelm!

Ahah! There was a sundress Lori hadn't worn in months, and Bobby hadn't seen her in it yet. Lori put the dress in front of herself as she looked into the mirror, imagining herself going outside with it. The sundress was a dark blue, with a white and red flowery pattern scattered across. Exactly what she was looking for! Lori knew Bobby really well by now. She wanted to look nicer, but she didn't want to be super fake either. What a perfect compromise!

"Leni, what do you think about me wearing this to the date today?" Lori turned towards her sister, holding the sundress in front of her.

Leni, who was lying in her bed, glanced up from the magazine she was reading. Upon seeing Lori, she perked up, sat upright, and started shaking her fists in front of her with glee.

"Adorbs! You're like totally gonna do great today!"

[Lori always knows what to do!]

Lori grinned as she went through her drawers and picked out the other pieces she was going to wear. High heels, necklaces, makeup, a lot had to go into presenting herself well for the occasion.

Half an hour later, Lori was finally done. She stared at herself in the mirror, intent on finding any imperfections not obvious to the naked eye. Lori took a selfie, packed her purse with necessities, and started walking towards the door.

As she walked outside her room, Lori paused. A torrent of a familiar  _sensation_  hit her once again.

[Oh, Edwin, if only our eternal love wasn't bound to the shackles of fiction and imagination…]

[Heads up! Score!]

[Tripwire, check. Hidden camera, check. Unsuspecting sibling, check!]

Lori was instantly reminded of the loss of individuality she experienced since she had been last outside her room. She was not about to put up with that again. She had learned all she wanted to learn: reading minds was literally useless.

[Here she comes!]

With a roll of her eyes, Lori walked across the hall, stepping over the tripwire Luan conveniently telegraphed to her. She approached a certain child prodigy's room and reached for the doorknob.

As her hand surrounded the doorknob however, Lori paused once again. Her hand refused to turn. It remained on the doorknob with sweaty palms.

Some part of the morbid curiosity from earlier remained. She had violated the privacy of hundreds of others she had never met in her life, but there was a significant other that still remained pure.

Beads of sweat formed on Lori's forehead as she continued gripping the doorknob. This significant other was just about one of the sweetest people she had ever met, and Lori trusted him with her life. Yet somehow, there was still this desire to  _know_. To finish what was started. To be absolutely certain of their undying love for each other.

Lori sighed, and finally let go of the doorknob.  _"Just a few more hours,"_  she told herself.  _"Just a few more hours, and then I get this cursed_  thing _removed"_

The young woman walked through the crowded hallway, down the stairs, then out the door. She entered Vanzilla, hopped into the driver's seat, and simply gripped the steering wheel.

Lori turned the ignition key, and the humming of the engine started resonating from outside. Was she sure she really wanted to do this? There were already several other thoughts she didn't have to see that completely ruined her!

Lori's grip on the steering wheel tightened. She trusted Bobby. Bobby would trust her too. Just why did she need any kind of confirmation at all!? She had all the confirmation she needed.

Her body defied her, as she slammed the door shut and put the car into gear. She would see Bobby's eternal love in its purest form. Yes, that was it. She would see love in a way no other had done before. What a truly unique experience that would be! How she could treasure something no one else could!

Car put into gear, Vanzilla was pulled out of the driveway, and onto the road. No turning back now. She was officially locked in. This was the ultimate gamble that would make or break her. No matter the answer, it would be a life-changing experience.

* * *

Lori parked her car in a driveway and got out. She had conveniently found a spot right outside the place she was supposed to meet Bobby at. Das Ten Ten. What an odd name for a restaurant.

Not far in front of her, a certain Hispanic man with a white shirt, black tie, black pants, and brown shoes was found waiting outside the restaurant, glancing at his watch.

"Hi boo-boo-bear!" Lori waved her hand and grinned.

Bobby looked up from his watch at the young woman in front of him.

"Babe!"

The duo reached over and wrapped their arms around each other, locking themselves in a warm, but firm embrace. Ever since Bobby moved, opportunities to show their affection for each other had been far in between, and they made sure to make the most of what little contact they did get.

"Are you gonna let go babe?"

"You let go first, boo-boo-bear!"

"No you let go!"

"No you let go!"

The couple giggled as they both slowly released each other from their grasp. This exchange of letting the other hang up or let go first never got old.

Bobby walked up to the door, opened it, and motioned his hands inside. "After you!"

"Oh, so thoughtful!" Lori giggled as she walked inside. Bobby followed soon after.

As Lori walked in, she saw a large assortment of tables and booths in front of her. Directly to her right, there was a man in a suit standing behind a pedestal, tapping through a large touchscreen device that presumably kept track of reservations.

The man glanced up from the tablet. "Ah! Another one of our young couples!"

"Yeah, we have a reservation for 6:00 PM in one of the booths" Bobby replied.

The man made a few tapping motions on the tablet, and then motioned his hands over to a waitress not far ahead. "You may proceed, enjoy!"

Bobby and Lori walked up to the waitress, who was wearing a headband, blue shirt, and waitress apron. The woman led the duo to a booth in the far corner of the restaurant.

[Ew, what is this slimy  _thing_  on the rice?]

[How do I break the news to her…]

[Another boring day at work…]

More mundane thoughts flooded Lori's mind, and a knot formed in her stomach as she processed some of the words she pieced together. Most of the thoughts were literally useless to hear, but a select few of them were ominous of what she might hear from Bobby. Bobby seemed okay so far, but the possibility still lingered somewhere in her mind.

Lori and Bobby approached the booth with a paper sliding door. The woman they were following opened the door for them, and the duo sat down across from each other at the table inside. The waitress handed each of them a menu and left, closing the sliding door behind her.

This was it. Lori was isolated from the rest of the world. It was just her and Bobby. No distractions. No worries. Just her and her significant other.

[Did I do my hair right? Did I button correctly?]

Bobby scratched the back of his head as he flipped through the menu. "This is gonna be a bit different from what I'm used to. I don't know what half of these things are."

"Oh that's the fun of it! You get to try new things! We can't just eat at Jean Juan's French Mex Buffet all the time, right?" Lori slightly grinned she started looking through the menu herself.

[I really hope I can make this work!]

"I'm gonna miss finishing each other's sentences, we knew our orders so well!" Bobby put the menu down open in front of him.

Lori strummed her fingers against the table as she also put the menu down in front of her. So far, Bobby seemed to be relatively normal. He often seemed like he knew what he was doing, but somewhere down there was a man that was just as nervous as she was. The genuine nature of his worries elicited an affectionate sigh from Lori.

"I know!" Lori softly laughed. "But we should be able to do other things once in a while, right? It's our company that matters!"

"Say, wanna do something fun?"

"I'm in for fun!"

"How about we order for each other?" Bobby put his hands out in front of him. "We might not know what a lot of these things are, but we can try and see what we might think the other person might like!"

Lori kept her head down and started tapping her index finger at the table. "Yeah, that sounds good."

The duo picked up their menus again, reading through the options in silence.

Lori constantly glanced up at her boyfriend as she scanned through the list. Peering through the depths of Bobby's gray matter was obviously not in spirit of the game and reading his thoughts wouldn't mean anything in terms of how well Lori really knew him. On the flip side however, there was a part of Lori that  _really_  wanted to make him happy. Just imagine how they would look back at the time Lori picked out the  _perfect_  dish for Bobby!

The waitress returned with a notepad and pen in her hand. "Ready to order?"

[Lori said Eel-stuffed samosas earlier, right?]

"I'm good when you are babe!"

Lori turned her head towards the waitress. "I'll have the Eel-stuffed Samosas please!" She pointed at the item in the menu.

The waitress started scribbling in her notepad. "Anything else?"

"I'll have the Japanese Curry rice in a bowl of Naan!" Bobby also pointed at the menu.

The waitress thanked the two and left the booth once more.

The weight on Lori's shoulders increased as she made her order. On one hand, she really did mention eel-stuffed samosas earlier. On the other hand, it wasn't clear whether she would have had it in herself to actually remember. Did she really know Bobby? Did what she did count as cheating?

"Babe? Are you okay?" Bobby's face turned to one of concern as a frown manifested itself onto his face.

Lori stared down at the table on front of her. Her head refused to turn up and look her significant other in the eye.

"Yeah, I just had a few things on my mind from earlier…" Lori sighed.

"You seemed really distressed in the text you sent me earlier, what happened?"

Today was an exhausting experience to say the least. Even in isolation, Lori had to worry. If her experience in the bathroom was any indication, it was very apparent to her that anyone could have really hurtful thoughts about you without the target ever knowing. These thoughts really hit her on a personal level, attacking her in ways she never could have considered. Violet was just a testament to the theory, imagine what happens now?

Lori gulped as she carefully considered her words. What could she possibly say? It's not like she can just tell Bobby that she can read minds now and did something she wasn't supposed to do! What would Bobby think of her if she dropped that bomb on him!?

Lori glanced up again, before quickly darting her eyes back to her hand on the table.

[This is bad, I really want to help her!]

 _"Okay, breathe."_ Lori took a deep breath.  _"Bobby just wants to help. Tell him what literally happened."_

"I… I heard some bad things about me today. Someone was talking behind my back and I overheard them."

"Oh wow…" Bobby responded. "What did they say?"

Lori's fingers kept tapping at the table. "Do you think I'm spoiled? Self-centered?"

"What? Why would someone say that about you?"

Lori turned her head up towards Bobby, who looked at Lori with genuine intent.

[I might have an idea…]

The knot in Lori's stomach tightened as she heard those words from Bobby. Did Bobby also think of her the same way Violet did!? Had she been lied to this whole time!?

"She said something about how I post selfies a lot." A fist formed in Lori's hand. "I buy new clothes from the mall and like taking pictures of myself in them, I guess that means I'm self-centered! I live in a large family and my parents haven't gone broke, I guess that means I'm spoiled too!"

[I can see where that came from]

Lori's grip softened as she turned her head down in shame. She couldn't bring herself to see anything more. Hearing someone she never really talked to say something personal about Lori was one thing. If she was about to hear it from someone that really knew her, then that would be on a whole new level.

Bobby sighed. "Babe, I know you like taking selfies a lot, and you do live in a large family. Yes, sometimes you might not be entirely considerate of others, and to be fair, your parents do have to be pretty rich to have 11 kids. Yikes, I have trouble with the Casagrandes as it is!"

 _"Here it comes…"_  Lori covered her eyes and braced herself for the emotional impact.

"But Lori, that doesn't mean you're selfish, or self-centered." Bobby exclaimed. "That girl doesn't know what she's talking about!"

_"What?"_

Lori uncovered her eyes, and for the first time in a while, looked Bobby in the eyes.

"Taking selfies of yourself is totally normal! Why would you ever buy clothes for yourself if you didn't want other people to see it? That's not self-centered or selfish, that's what they're meant for!

"And I don't know about you, but I don't think you're spoiled at all! You're one of the most responsible people I know! I thought Ronnie Anne was a handful, but you really know what you're doing while leading your siblings! You're not a jerk about it, you're totally fair and reasonable!

Lori's finger was still tapping on the table. Bobby's hand reached over and put his hand on top of hers, causing the young woman to stop. "There are times where you aren't the best, yes. But really, who doesn't? I'd be more worried if you actually were prim and perfect, it'd almost feel like you were being super fake to me! You're super real with me, you know me really well, and you really are one of the sweetest most caring people, not just with me, but with your family! That's the Lori I know, and I wouldn't have it any other way!"

Lori turned her head towards Bobby's hand, then back at his face. Her heart swelled up as she processed what Bobby had just dropped on her. She didn't have to peer into the depths of her significant other, he had just given a monologue that could only come from someone that truly cared.

Lori grinned as she put her other hand on top of Bobby's hand. "Thanks Boo-Boo-Bear, I really needed that."

"No problem! Looks like chow's coming our way!"

Sure enough, the silhouette behind the sliding door opened it, with the food ready within her arms.

For the first time today, Lori's thoughts were crystal clear. She worked herself up with an unfounded curiosity, which only ended in destroyed perceptions and lack of trust. Thoughts are private for a reason, and invasion of that privacy was juts asking for unnecessary trouble. No need to constantly know every little detail about every little being.

Lori looked up at Bobby as the waitress set the food down in front of them. Bobby wouldn't realize for a long time just how much he had helped Lori see just now, and Lori wouldn't wish for the ability to read minds upon anyone. Maybe one day she'll tell him, but that day was not today.

"So, did I tell you about this new job I started doing this other day?" Bobby asks while poking at his food.

"Oh, so responsible! Tell me all about it!" Lori swooned.

* * *

A few more sensory experiences to power through, but the date was  _literally_ worth it. Lori and Bobby had a lot of laughs, caught up on each other's lives, and simply appreciated each other for who they were. After the dinner, they talked about going out for a walk, but Lori had to decline based on her circumstances.

Lori had just parked her car in front of her house, hands no longer clenched onto the steering wheel, and back relaxed. She jumped out of her car and quickly paced over to her front door. She pushed through the ever-so-present large crowd in the house as she made her way up the stairs, turned right, and approached a certain 4-year-old's room.

The young woman reached for the doorknob and put her hands around it. However, her hands didn't immediately rotate. The same familiar sensation from before the date started rushing back to Lori: the sweaty palms and forehead, the tightening grip on the doorknob, increased palpitation of the heart, her body was begging her to reconsider. Look at what the device did! It showed authenticity in feeling! The lessons learned were invaluable! Just imagine what else the device is capable of!

Lori shook her head. All of that was flimsy rationalization. Lori could continue reasoning to herself for all time and eternity, and that was what got her into this situation in the first place. Lori was scraping the bottom of the barrel at that point. The device was a unique experience, but it was also one that ended with inhibition of daily activities and destruction of self-esteem. It was time for her to acknowledge the problem and solve it.

The grip on the doorknob finally softened as Lori took a deep breath, turned the doorknob, and pushed the door open.

Up ahead, a certain young brunette could be seen scribbling on paper at her desk.

"Uh, hi Lisa," Lori sheepishly grinned.

Lisa continued scribbling. "So you finally came."

Lori raised an eyebrow. "You knew?"

Lisa stood up and walked towards Lori. "You feign such a shocked demeanor, as though you haven't attempted to communicate your dissatisfaction with the device a few times earlier."

"How did you know?" Lori squinted at Lisa.

"I believe I have observed you appearing in front of my room, seemingly contemplating intrusion of my privacy. Yeesh, those animalistic shaking tendencies demonstrated from your hands shaking on the doorknob disturbed what would otherwise be a controlled and focused academic endeavor."

Lori leaned over, hands on her hips. "You saw me, huh?"

Lisa produced a folded-up contract from her pocket, unfolded it, and held it out for Lori to see.

Lori glanced at the contract, cursing the signature she had laid down on the contract before redirecting her focus at the child prodigy. "So you were expecting me?"

"Correction: I have been  _awaiting_  you." Lisa maintained her neutral expression.

"Why?"

Lisa readjusted her glasses. "If you may recall, I hadn't constructed this device upon request, it is the remains of a project I had taken on beforehand. If I may be honest, I too was tempted with the allure of extracting information those are unwilling to give or consider mundane. Suffice it to say, you have first-hand experience on why the project was abandoned now."

A short rush of anger flashed through Lori as a fist formed in her hand. "You knew this thing was literally going to ruin my life, and you gave it to me anyway!?"

"I recall attempting to discourage you. Frankly, if my primary focus was to try and obtain proverbially illicit goods from you, then I wouldn't have bothered listing out the key terms of importance. Perhaps in retrospect, that intent may have been thinly veiled." Lisa's trademark mischievous grin manifested itself onto her face as she glanced from left to right.

Lori sighed and rolled her eyes. "Can you get this  _thing_ off already?" She pointed at her right eye.

Lisa produced a device from her other hand, which resembled a walkie-talkie with a single red button on it. She pressed the button, then turned towards her desk again.

"I have deactivated the device, expect removal of physical components by the following morning."

Lori was stunned as she remained in place. Was that it? Just like that? Press a button, everything's fine?

Lisa, who was at her desk writing again, shooed Lori away with a wave of her hand. "Surely you were expecting something more grandiose. Complex devices don't always require complex procedures. The best ideas can come from the laziest of premises."

The young woman slowly turned and walked towards the door. As she opened the door and stepped foot outside, she looked over the crowd right in front of her. Lynn sparring with Lincoln, Lucy writing poems with herself in a corner, and Luna playing on her guitar.

Nothing. No words above people's heads, no sounds aside from what everyone else could hear.

Lori walked through the hall, taking the time to look at each one of her siblings, going about their own activities. For once, there wasn't a looming curiosity hanging over her. Instead, there was a feeling of appreciation for what they were. They were just doing their own thing, and there was something beautiful about the individuality, and how they chose to express themselves.

Lori approached her bedroom, opened the door, and walked inside. Leni could be seen sewing off to the side.

"Hi Lori!" Leni turned and waved towards her older sister.

"Hey Leni." Lori changed from her dating attire into something more familiar to herself. As she did so, she glanced at Leni, who happily continued working on her machine. Lori didn't need a mind reader, or heck, even to look at Leni. She already knew Leni was her sister, and they meant the world to each other. Leni's bubbly genuine nature shone through her voice and upbeat demeanor, and Lori treasured it with all her heart.

A line is drawn between blissful ignorance and intrusion of privacy. Lori was given a power no other being could ever have upon themselves, and the experience backfired on her in ways no one else could have foretold or understood. The important thing was to not demonize others for every little fault or revolve your life around the opinions of others. Lori was her own individual with her own thoughts, and no one else should ever have to change that.

Lori grinned to herself as she picked up her phone. There was a certain significant other that she was just  _dying_  to talk to again.

_"Hi Bobby-boo-boo-bear!"_

Lori went to her closet and started organizing its contents, while her foot tapped at the floor below. A few seconds later, her phone buzzed in her pocket. She dropped the clothes in her hands and quickly fished the device out of her pocket.

_"Hey babe! How'd you enjoy the date?"_

Her fingers tapped at her device with intensity and speed. This time, there were no barriers. No insecurities, no invasions of privacy, just good old talk with her more-than-best-friend.

_"This date was literally the best!"_


	5. Teleporting Glove (part 1)

Lisa frantically rummaged through the piles of papers on her desk, searching for the lecture notes she had prepared. Beads of sweat formed on her forehead as she opened drawers and threw papers out to the side. She had been sidetracked with her quest for creating a pen that auto-corrected spelling and grammar errors. She was already almost late to her lecture at the community college.

"Ohhhhh, what a disastrous mental misstep I made!" Lisa said as she grabbed a stack and shoved them into her bag. The pile of papers within crumpled up from the pressure exerted above.

She quickly zipped the bag, hoisted it onto her shoulder, and dashed out the room. Lisa ran through the hall towards a room belonging to a certain older sister of hers.

Lisa approached the door and banged at it with her fist. "Lori! I urgently require transportation to the community college! Tardiness is imminent!"

An audible sigh could be heard from within. "Fine, give me 5 minutes."

"I'll do your English essay if you skip the makeup!"

The door opened up in front of Lisa, revealing Lori twirling the ignition key on her right index finger with a nonchalant expression.

"You're still doing my Trig homework," Lori said as she walked past Lisa and approached the stairs. Lisa quickly dashed past Lori, running down the stairs and out the door towards Vanzilla parked outside.

Lisa's hands reached for the door handle and she pulled, only for the door to not budge. She clenched her teeth and tugged at the door a few more times as Lori finally walked through the door.

"You literally don't have to keep tugging on the door Lisa, I thought you of all people would know that." Lori pressed a button on her key as Lisa continued pulling. The door instantaneously flew open, and Lisa fell backwards as she narrowly dodged the door slamming into her face.

Lisa got herself up, jumped into the car, strapped on her seatbelt as her other reached to the side and slammed the door shut next to her. Lori hopped into the car herself, dropping down on the seat, strapping herself in, turning the ignition key, and pulling the two out the driveway.

The child prodigy produced a crumpled-up sheet of paper from her pocket with trembling hands and started scanning her eyes across the pages. This was it. If she didn't make it to the community college on time, then she would fail to uphold her promise to educate and grow the future generations.

10 agonizing minutes of shifting and stirring in her seat later, Lisa finally saw the community college up ahead through the front window. Lisa ripped the seatbelt away from herself as Lori started pulling into the driveway. The child prodigy clenched her fists together and started shaking them as she waited for Lori to finally park the car.

As Lori pushed the gearstick forward to finish parking, Lisa immediately pushed the door open and jumped out, dashing towards the community college.

"I'll be back in an hour!" Lori called out to her.

Lisa panted as she burst through the front door of the college, climbing a stair and running through several hallways towards the class she was due to teach. She started digging through her bag as she did so, and papers nearly flew out as her hands rummaged through the crumpled-up piles within.

The child prodigy burst through the door, jetted over to the pedestal and started frantically unpacking and sorting through the mess of papers out in front of her.

Lisa stretched out the crumped-up pieces of paper as she glanced at the clock across the room.

3:42

Lisa froze as she saw those dreaded numbers across from her. She was 12 minutes late to her lecture.

Her eyes scanned across the room as she saw noticed for the first time how jarringly empty the room was. No students unpacking their bags, chatting with each other, or mindlessly swiping away at their phones.

The students must have left early, assuming the professor was a no show. Lisa's margin of lateness was absolutely unacceptable. Her irresponsibility had enabled the cementing of non-productive behavior by allowing her students to leave and engage in their other worldly mundane activities. No doubt her students would come closer to collectively turning their brains into a pile of dead gray mush at this rate.

Lisa snapped back to reality as she heard the door open and a student walked in late to class.

The student paced quickly to his usual seat in the corner, then paused. He turned towards Lisa standing at front and made eye contact. The student then swiveled his head around scanning the classroom, then paced quickly towards the door, walking out again.

Lisa remained frozen in place. She had failed her duty. She had failed to be on time, and by extension, she had failed her obligations as a professor. She had committed a public disservice to the community, and the world. She had failed.

The child prodigy started writing on the blackboard. The writing started off mellow, until she slowly picked up her pace. Eventually, she was outright scribbling, smacking the tip of the chalk against the blackboard each time.

The chalk in her hand broke in half from the pressure.

* * *

Lori pulled Vanzilla in front of the community college, and a certain child prodigy could be seen standing outside the entrance visibly  _shaking_. Lisa took off her glasses and rubbed her eyes. As Lori got out of Vanzilla, she spotted a glimmer on Lisa's hand, and she could almost hear the 4-year-old sniffling.

The neutral expression on Lori started shifting as her gaze softened and a frown manifested itself onto her face. She remained still in place as she contemplated her next few words.

"…Lisa? I'm here to drive you back home." Lori opened the door to the passenger's seat and motioned her other hand towards Vanzilla.

Without a response, Lisa jumped up to the seat and slumped in place. Lori closed the door, walked around the car, and got into the driver's set herself.

Lori closed the door to her left and turned the ignition key. "Lisa, seatbelt." The young woman reached for the seatbelt to her left and strapped herself in.

Lisa continued sulking as she reached upwards for the seatbelt and secured herself, staring at the ground the entire time.

Lori put Vanzilla into gear and started pulling out the driveway. She continued to hear the occasional sniffle from Lisa as she got onto the road and started making her way through the streets.

"So, why'd you call to go home early?" Lori asked.

Lisa harrumphed and dug herself further into the seat. "Nothing of your concern."

Lori furrowed her eyebrows. "Come on Lisa, if something's bothering you then it's also my concern."

"You wouldn't understand." Lisa crossed her arms and started mumbling incoherent technobabble to herself.

Lori shrugged and continued driving.

Lisa continued muttering to herself, breaking what would otherwise be an awkward silence. Lori couldn't possibly understand what kind of situation the child prodigy was in.

The extra time Lori took to get ready and drive to school was adding unnecessary time that could be spent teaching, studying, or actually getting to class on time. 10 minutes to class, 10 minutes back. Just imagine what could be accomplished in 20 minutes! She could finish all 10 of her siblings' homework in that time! Maybe get a few experiments done! Draft a few blueprints! Apply for a position in the interplanteray council!

However, deep down, Lisa knew she could have been more responsible and checked the time properly. It wasn't fair to push all the blame on her older sister. Lori was a simple high school girl whose only concern was for her superficial romantic connections. To Lori, academic endeavors were merely an afterthought. By taking part in tardy behavior Lisa's students engaged in, Lisa had just perpetuated that mentality. Lisa Loud was part of the problem.

Lisa buried her face within her hands and sniffled again. What a conundrum she found herself in! How could she ever find time to do all the works he wanted to do in life? So many studies to conduct, so many obligations, and a lack of responsibility to boot! Curse Vanzilla and the opportunity costs of travel!

Unless…

Lisa lifted her hands up from her face. She took her glasses off and wiped her eyes once more. What if she did remove the opportunity cost? What if she just didn't have to take Vanzilla altogether? What if she could just get there on command?

A storm surged up in Lisa's mind as she produced yet another piece of crumpled up paper, a pencil from her pocket, and started scribbling on it. The intermittent sniffling soon disappeared. A stroke of genius from a moment of silence and despair!

Lori pulled up into the driveway and parked. She unbuckled her seatbelt and got out the door.

"Alright Lisa, we're home!"

Lisa still sat in the seat, scribbling and incoherently muttering to herself as she squeezed in notes in all the spaces possible.

Lori rolled her eyes, slammed the door shut, and walked up to the house.

Lisa continued scribbling in her seat. She could not lose her train of thought. A grandiose idea was coming about, and she would never have to write those plans blueprints in the car again.

This van ride would be the last one she would ever take!

* * *

Okay, that van ride was  _probably_  the last one she would ever take. Lisa worked all day and night earlier, but she was still struggling to finish it in time. It was currently 3:05, and Lisa had 10 minutes until she would be forced to take the van if she wanted to be on time again.

Her palms were sweaty as she frantically screwed some parts together and constantly sifted through the many blueprints on her table. Almost done, just gotta get these finishing touches together…

Lisa inserted the screwdriver into the last screw and turned, this time with greater precision and care than the last. When the screw finally tightened, she pulled the screwdriver out and threw it off to the side.

"Fine-motor self-displacement device, street name Teleportation Glove, tentatively complete!"

The device was dark gray and appeared to be designed for equipping onto someone's arm, almost like a cast or elongated arm-length glove. It was made with a type of hardened leathery surface, 'Xenoskin' as she called it. Across the armpiece were several buttons laid out in a row, with a screen near the top. The handpiece itself had a different texture, with sensors place on each fingertip.

Lisa cradled the device within her arms and looked down at the device. Her arms started trembling as she slowly inserted her left arm into the device. The soft cottony surface within brushed itself against her arms as her arms snaked their way up towards the handpiece.

Teleporting was, to say the least, a very daunting idea. Essentially, it boiled down to Lisa taking apart her entire molecular structure, blasting them all across some alternate dimension, and manifesting those molecules and atoms into the exact same configuration they were in from before. In other words, taking a person apart and putting them together again. Would Lisa still be the same person she was before?

She only had one shot at this. Any kind of failure was completely unacceptable. No amount of lateness could ever amount to the tightening knot in Lisa's stomach with the prospect of a single failure being the end of everything as she knew it.

As Lisa's hands secured itself into the handpiece, she clenched and unclenched her left hand, causing the screen on the device lit up.

The screen displayed the area Lisa was in, with a green dot indicating Lisa's position and coordinates written below. Lisa swiped and scrolled along the screen until an image of a certain building she had lived in for 4 years appeared. She tapped the house on the screen and pressed a button, making a red dot appear.

Lisa turned her arm around until her palm faced her, and she gazed down at the device that would enable shenanigans to go down. She had come this far, and she would see through it to the end. This would be a benefit. Benefit to herself, to society, to mankind.

"Commencing field test!"

The child prodigy smirked as she clenched her left hand together, then unclenched as she shot her arm out in front of her.

A glowing electrical aura surrounded Lisa, then in an instant, Lisa disappeared.

Before she knew it, Lisa found herself standing outside the door. Vanzilla had just pulled in, and Lori was just coming out of the van.

Lori gasped and jumped back a few feet. "Lisa!? What are you doing out here!?"

For a few seconds, Lisa was stunned. She stared at the sight in front of her and how suddenly things just  _changed._  One second, in front of desk. Next second, bam! Outside the house. No animation, no sensation of suddenly moving fast, just suddenly there. She had successfully completed her first trial with human teleportation.

She pressed a few buttons on the screen, touched her left thumb to her index finger twice, her middle finger once, then pressed a button again. Her screen lit up with the phrase "Location set. Hand gesture saved."

Lisa started giggling as she pressed a few more buttons on her screen. She then let out a full-blown maniacal laughter as she pulled her arm inwards, clenched her left hand, unclenched and shot her arm out upwards. With that, she was gone in a flash, leaving a confused and dumbfounded older sibling outside.

Lisa suddenly found herself in her room again, arm still in the air and still laughing from earlier. Her laughter eventually simmered to a grin, and she walked up to her desk, picked up her bag, and started sorting through the mess of tables on her desk. This time, she stacked them in neatly organized piles, carefully inserting said piles into her bag.

Hoisting the bag on her shoulder, Lisa pressed a few buttons on her glove, swiped at the screen, and selected a hand gesture. She grinned as she made the selected hand gesture, pumped her fist in, and shot her arm out. A familiar glowing electrical aura surrounded the child prodigy, then all trace of her was completely absent.

Lisa was now in front of the community college. The green wallpaper, mess of papers, and scientific miscreation was replaced with a driveway and a large building in front of the child prodigy. Lisa glanced up at the clock ahead of her.

3:12

18 minutes early. A new record.

Lisa gazed down at her left arm once again. With so many things to do, Lisa always struggled to be just barely on time, but with her newest creation, the limited resource that is time had just doubled in availability. The sudden increase in her schedule's flexibility would allow her to undertake tasks that were previously impossible. The increments in time saved would add up over time, and Lisa fully intended on making use of what little of her life she may have.

The child prodigy pressed a few buttons on the device, deactivating it. She walked in through the building with a triumphant grin on her face, climbing a few stairs up towards the classroom.

Lisa walked into the classroom, which was still empty like the day before. This time however, it wasn't the result of personal irresponsibility. It was the result of preparation and dedication. Lisa beamed as she took out the papers from her bag and started writing on the chalkboard.

Over the next several minutes, students started flooding in, and the familiar atmosphere of gossip and fingers swiping at phones reappeared. Lisa even had time to take out a book and start brushing up on her Japanese for a potential international inventors' fair.

As the clock struck 3:30, Lisa stood up and started smacking the blackboard with her pointer. The entire class simultaneously looked up at their abnormally young professor.

Lisa cleared her throat. "Greetings, students! As some of you may have observed, I was in fact absent for yesterday's lecture, and I do apologize for the myriad of inconveniences this anomaly in my behavior may have incurred."

Lisa adjusted her glasses and glanced down at the papers in front of her, before glancing up at the class again. "But fear not! I still plan on instituting a lesson plan that will provide a complete set of information on the wonders of the arithmetical field that is Calculus, and you should all have sufficient knowledge to complete the quiz by next week. Without further ado, we shall commence."

A few groans were heard, and students took out their notebooks and laptops. Lisa however grinned to herself as she turned her back away and started writing a problem on the board. She could have solace in the idea that she was freed from the shackles of dependence on her eldest sibling to drive her. Independence and personal autonomy was key, and at least for today, she had successfully fulfilled her proverbial destiny.

* * *

"…therefore, it is imperative that you remember these basic shortcuts for finding derivatives of functions." Lisa continued smacking the chalk against the blackboard as she wrote more notes. "Remember the difference between the multiplication and quotient rule, and  _especially_  remember that if a problem asks for the definition, then you still have to use the relevant formula and these aforementioned rules are not acceptable answers."

Lisa turned back towards the students for probably the 50th time that day. Students were already packing up as the clock approached 4:30. Notes were flying into bags, computers were put away, and many kids were sitting on the edge of their seats, waiting for the sweet release of freedom.

Lisa sighed as she saw what was unfolding before her. It was great that she wasn't late to the class, but  _something_  just didn't feel right. Most of the students appeared to be so anxious to leave and forget about learning. What was the point of giving students all this information if they weren't going to use it?

"Please be reminded once again that there will be a quiz next week regarding derivatives and the antonym anti-derivative. You will have 15 minutes, and I highly suggest you take it upon yourself to study for long-term retaining of the material. Class dismissed."

As soon as she gave the word of dismissal, the students shot up from their seats and bolted away towards the door. Within a matter of seconds, the entire class was empty, save for a certain 4-year-old.

Lisa pinched the bridge of her nose and started erasing the blackboard behind her. If only her students had the same level of enthusiasm while  _entering_  the classroom.

"Professor?"

Lisa tripped a bit as she heard a certain voice behind her. She turned around and saw a young woman in front of her, whom Lisa recognized as one of her students.

"Uhh-" Lisa quickly erased the rest of the board, stacked her papers on the pedestal, stuffed them into her bag, and faced the student. She was almost never approached by anyone she taught, and suffice it to say, she was completely unprepared.

Lisa cleared her throat. "Greetings, aspiring student! I have to deduce given the various circumstances and your decision to approach me that you wish to obtain something from me."

The student reached into her bag and produced a sheet of paper with scribbles and red markings all over it. "Well, I have trouble with your class, and I did really bad on the last quiz I took."

Lisa took the quiz from the student's hands. She scored a 58, and Lisa recognized the same name on the sheet as one that consistently got low scores.

"Well Jessica," Lisa adjusted her glasses. "I believe you have quite a bit to work on before you can pass one of these quizzes. There is an implied degree of personal study time in college courses, I suggest you heed them and review the material I teach during your own time."

Jessica put the tip of her index fingers together and stared down at the ground. "I really do professor, I really do. But I just don't get the material! The class moves too quickly, and I can never get my questions answered! I've been looking for a tutor to personally explain these things to me, but they're really expensive…"

Lisa put her hand up to her chin and made an audible humming noise. This one was quite interesting. In some respects, Jessica was one of the worst students in the class, but she was also the only one that had ever approached Lisa at all. It seemed as though she really was willing to learn and needed a push in the right direction.

The child prodigy raised her finger and opened her mouth, only to pause.

_"She's looking for a tutor, but they're really expensive…"_

Lisa crossed her arms and pointed her index finger at Jessica. "Might I be the one to personally explain the academic material you claim to be struggling with?"

That's right! Lisa had more time now because she didn't have to consider the opportunity cost that came with driving to and from school! What if she used some of that time to help someone else in need of her services? Tutoring would be a great way to reach those individuals willing to make a difference! All for free, and truly a social service!

Jessica slightly gasped. "Really? You would do that?"

"I may be able to restructure my itinerary to accommodate your needs, yes." Lisa took out a notepad and pencil from her pocket and started writing.

"How much? Would your parents be okay with it?"

Lisa's eye twitched as she heard those words. "Considering your circumstances, I have found it in my benevolent nature to provide my services free of charge. There is no need to fear for my parental units' approval."

"Oh, thank you thank you!" Jessica reached over to give a hug, but then paused, and slightly backed up. Lisa blankly stared at Jessica with her neutral expression the entire time.

"4:30 after tomorrow's class."

"Got it! Thanks again!" Jessica took her quiz and practically skipped out the door.

There she had it, just one of many steps Lisa would take to make use of all the extra time she had. She wouldn't have to rely on Lori who came with their own slew of problems. No more of having to do her bidding on whatever she has in mind, or simply her being unreliable by refusing or being late.

Lisa scratched her head and her eye twitched slightly again. Something about the way Jessica was addressing her *really* ticked her off. Intentional or not, the way Jessica asked about Lisa's parents seriously grinded her gears. Lisa was clearly much more than some toddler to be coddled and held hands with. Owner of 3, soon to be 4 Junior Nobel Prizes, constantly realizing dreams of science fiction no one else was capable of, bestowing upon others her plentiful wealth of knowledge, these teaching opportunities were  _just_  the beginning of her potential becoming reality.

The constant tension between her accomplishments and Lisa's innate status as the dependent 4-year-old girl she was only furthered her resolve to work harder. Just what else could she do with all the extra time she had now? Where could she go that she couldn't go before? There was  _always_  something more she could be doing.

The child prodigy took out a notepad and pencil from her pocket, recorded some notes, then took out the teleporting glove from under the pedestal. She equipped it onto her left arm and started swiping at her screen again. She set the coordinates, clenched her left hand, shot her arm out in front of her as she unclenched, and she was gone in a flash.

Lisa suddenly found herself in a lab of some sort, different from her own. The room was large, almost the size of a football field, and had a whitish shade associated with it. Around her, there were various people in lab coats, hazmat suits, or other protective gear working on various machines or scribbling on hundreds of pieces of paper on their desks.

The child prodigy walked through the room, taking in the atmosphere of a collective creative ingenuity working in tandem to create a future that would surely be for the greater good of mankind. Her heart fluttered a bit as she thought back to how she herself could become a part of making the world a better place.

Eventually, Lisa approached a man in a lab coat standing near a desk with two of his associates. They appeared to be drafting a finalized blueprint taking up the entirety of the desk. The desk itself was strewn with pencils, calculators, rulers, protractors, and other mathematical devices that would be used for the project.

Lisa cleared her throat. "Pardon me, Dr. Radetzky, I'd hate to disrupt your work, but there is a certain matter that I would like to discuss with you."

Dr. Radetzky turned from his work and faced Lisa.

"Ah, yes, our resident intelligent extraordinaire. Welcome back."

Lisa adjusted her glasses a bit. "Previously, I have found myself unable to keep up with obligations and a consistent schedule considering our distance. As you may recall, I am a resident of Royal Woods Michigan, while this lab is in Silicon Valley. However, as of today, I have successfully eliminated distance as a factor. I am in possession of a certain device I have crafted for myself, which will serve as my resumé. If it may prove itself successful, I would like to offer my services here whenever possible."

She put her left arm out in front of her. "Presenting the fine-motor molecular self-displacement device, street name teleporting glove!"

Dr. Radetzky put a finger up to his cheek and made an audible 'hmm'. "I'm inclined to think your claim about having a glove that induces teleportation is impossible, but you are a 4-year-old with an academic prowess exceeding the best in history. Let's see it."

"What you are about to witness is a demonstration of just what my device is capable of." Lisa started pressing some buttons. "Considering that the idea of teleportation sounds preposterous by itself, I believe it will be sufficient to simply demonstrate the physical displacement of myself within a distance visible in this room."

Lisa clenched her left fist. "Do you find the terms to be acceptable for these purposes?"

Dr. Radetzky found himself a desk chair and dropped himself down, putting one foot up to rest on his knee. "Dazzle me."

Almost immediately, Lisa pointed her arm next to Dr. Radetzky, unclenching her hand. In an instant, she was surrounded by a glowing electrical aura, then suddenly appeared before Dr. Radetzky. The man gasped and suddenly fell backwards on the chair.

"Need I demonstrate any further?" Lisa put her arms next to her hips as she stared down Dr. Radetzky. He rubbed his head and awkwardly slid to the right, hoisted himself up, and lifted the chair to its proper orientation.

Dr. Radetzky dusted his lab coat off and faced the child prodigy.

"We would be honored to have you here in this facility." He crouched down a bit and extended his arm out in front.

Lisa stared down the hand that was being offered to her as she stood in place. This was just one of many steps that she would take in helping the world become a better place. She would offer advancements in technology and the sciences that were thought to be near-impossible by current standards. However, Lisa Loud was no standard being. She was a 4-year-old with a gift proverbially bestowed upon herself to be as intelligent and as fast of a learner as she was, and what a shame it would be to not accept the hand!

The child prodigy grinned and extend her right arm as well. The two engaged in a firm handshake.

"Welcome aboard." Dr. Radetzky beamed.


	6. Teleporting Glove (part 2)

"Again, I implore that you all take the time to review the concepts presented over the past few weeks, and that you arrive earlier than usual to avoid missing out on time for the actual quiz. Class dismissed."

Lisa waved her hand, her students shot up from their seats, and they all crowded around the entrance again. All except for a certain young lady that sat in a desk towards the back. Lisa adjusted her glasses and tilted her head a bit to see Jessica writing in her notebook.

The sounds of students shoving their way through the door slowly died down, and Lisa started erasing some notes on the blackboard. Her eyes perked up as she heard footsteps approach her from behind. She continued erasing the blackboard.

"Professor?"

Lisa almost instantaneously turned around, put her arms behind her, and faced the student. Jessica was cradling a notebook within her arms and had a sheepish expression on her face.

"I see you have retained knowledge of this imminent tutoring session previously discussed yesterday."

Jessica lurched back slightly, causing the notebook in her arms to drop to the floor. She nervously giggled and crouched down to pick up the papers that were now scattered all across the floor. Lisa stared blankly with her usual monotone expression.

"Oops! Sorry, and yeah, we did talk about that yesterday…" Jessica turned her head down and stifled a nervous laughter again.

"There is no need for involuntarily dilating the blood vessels on your immediate physiognomy." Lisa said. "Your decision to approach me personally is one many others aren't willing to take, and I find that to be an admirable initiative."

Lisa walked towards one of the desks, stopped next to the seat, and motioned for Jessica to sit. Jessica stared at the desk for a few seconds, before making small steps to the desk, and ultimately sitting down.

Lisa pulled up another desk nearby, put the two desks together, and pulled out the seat. She jumped up and stood on the seat, allowing her to reach the desktop properly.

"This is a tutoring session founded upon your desire to improve your academic knowledge, I believe it should follow that you also determine the direction in which these lessons shall proceed." Lisa opened Jessica's notebook to a blank page and put a pencil down in front.

"Uhh, just a second!" Jessica riffled through her stack of papers until she pulled out a familiar sheet of paper with red markings and a fat 58 on front.

Lisa snatched the paper from Jessica's grip and started scanning the pen-mark infested sheet with her eyes. Her eyes twitched a bit as the number of mistakes and pitfalls observed became more numerous. Nonetheless, she threw the paper back in front of Jessica with a relatively composed and neutral expression.

Jessica stared at the paper for a few seconds.

"I'm awaiting a response."

"Oh!" Jessica jolted up a bit and started looking through the quiz herself. "Uh, I didn't quite understand question 2!"

Lisa made an audible humming noise as she put her hand up to her chin. "What was your procedure for said problem?"

"Well, I know you're supposed to find the derivative, so I applied the quotient rule!"

Jessica proceeded to draw out what she thought was the quotient rule on the sheet.

Lisa had to summon up all the strength and compassion she had in herself to keep from yelling at Jessica for how  _blatantly wrong_  she was. This was a common occurrence when it came to giving individualized tutoring to anyone. Watching Jessica was like watching someone add 1+1 and somehow thinking that they need to calculate the square root of 43. Truly mindboggling how such a simple and relatively miniscule concept just couldn't be understood!

But alas, they were being tutored for a reason, and it was Lisa's responsibility to lay the foundations for veering further from proverbial Neanderthals.

"It appears you have fallen prey to a common pitfall. You remembered to subtract f prime times g by g prime times f, but you failed to divide the result by g squared."

Jessica hummed for a few seconds, before her eyes suddenly lit up and she started making several notes on the paper. After another few seconds, she uncovered her hands and showed Lisa the work she had just done.

Lisa scanned the sheet, and Jessica sported a sheepish grin as she started putting the tip of her index fingers together. The child prodigy could almost detect a little bit of shaking from said fingertips.

"It seems you have demonstrated an understanding on how to decipher this mathematical conundrum." Lisa put her hands behind her back. "I'll applaud you for your efforts."

"Oh, thank you so much Professor!" Jessica opened another notebook and started writing the formula Lisa described earlier.

Externally, Lisa maintained her stoic and unamused expression. In many ways, it really was frustrating for her to see students not understand what she thought was a simple application of logic and a little bit of memorization. However, there was just something about the way Jessica genuinely seemed to enjoy the feedback that really spoke out to Lisa. This is what Lisa teaches for. The seeds were being sown for her to make a difference, and Lisa was giving her the knowledge and motivation to do so. She just couldn't stay mad.

"Not a problem," Lisa replied. "Now how about we continue applying this newfound knowledge until this short-term retention of the formula becomes long-term?"

"Okay!" Jessica chirped. "I think I know how to fix problem 4 too!"

A slight smile appeared on Lisa's face as she watched her student continue to work. Maybe Jessica wasn't a complete failure. All Jessica needed was a push in the right direction.

* * *

"Thank you so so much for doing this Professor! I don't know where I would be without you!" Jessica continuously bowed down apologetically towards the child prodigy.

"Not a problem. The only request I have is that you apply this knowledge I gave you. How shameful it would be if I spent my time personally helping a student, only to not observe any kind of change at all."

As soon as she replied, Lisa felt a vibration within her pocket. She dug her hands within her pocket and pulled out a smartphone. The screen displayed an incoming call from Mr. Radetsky, who was in the lab Lisa volunteered for earlier.

Lisa swiped at the screen and put the phone up to her ear. "Greetings, Dr. Radetsky. What inquiries may you have?"

Jessica smiled and packed her belongings as Lisa took the phone call. After doing so, she slipped past the child prodigy, did a small wave, and went out the door, softly closing it along the way.

"Understood. I am available to report immediately." With that, Lisa put her phone in her pocket. She returned to the pedestal, packed her belongings in her backpack, then dug out the teleporting glove she had stashed there earlier. She put the glove on, swiped at the screen, clenched her left hand, then unclenched as she thrust her arm out in front of her. A familiar glowing electrical aura surrounded Lisa, then she was suddenly gone.

Lisa was suddenly surrounded by a familiar noise and atmosphere. People in lab coats around her were frantically working with radioactive materials, drafting blueprints, and devising complex machines. Individuals muttering to themselves, shouting across rooms, and electronic tools drilling, whirring, and beeping.

She walked through the crowd, and she strained her neck as her head constantly turned towards any direction that wasn't right in front of her. This sight ahead of her was truly breathtaking every single time she found herself with the opportunity to become one of them. Today, she wasn't just an outsider staring behind walls and images. Today, she would be part of the bigger picture.

While her eyes flew everywhere marveling at the spectacle of bright minds surrounding her, she caught a glimpse of a familiar figure she had interacted with many times before. Once again, he could be seen interacting with a few other coworkers, working on yet another blueprint taking up the desk.

Lisa approached the desk and stood at the base. The people seemed to be completely unphased by her presence, continuing to work and converse with each other.

"I have returned," Lisa abruptly announced.

"Timely, and true to their word. I respect that," Dr. Radetsky responded, not looking up from the desk.

Lisa winced slightly as she heard those words. Those words served as a brief reminder for what prompted her to construct what she had for herself and why she even had the opportunity to be present at all. It was also a reminder of her past riddled with human miscalculation and irresponsibility. Best to put those atrocities behind herself.

"P'shaww, baseline requirements to enter the workforce," Lisa replied as she started unequipping the teleporting glove from her left arm.

"That it should be." Dr. Radetsky finally looked up from his work and acknowledged Lisa's presence. "Why don't you come check this out?" He motioned for Lisa to jump on a stool nearby.

Lisa obliged, pulling herself up on the stool and standing on top. She caught a glimpse of the 2 other workers at the table inquisitively staring, only for them to turn away as Lisa faced either of them.

"Now, let's see if you can tell me what this is." Dr. Radetsky pointed at the blueprint.

Lisa put a finger up to her chin and made an audible humming noise as she investigated the blueprint in front of her. She started feeling around and shifting the paper a bit, obtaining a view from different angles.

"This appears to be a preliminary design for a theoretical nuclear fusion device." Lisa squinted a bit and adjusted her glasses.

"That is correct," Dr. Radetsky replied. "Our mission for several years now has been to provide humanity with energy that is more practical, safe, and sustainable. You should very well know by now the potential of nuclear fusion, what with its near limitless availability of resources and energy it can provide! Alas, achieving practicality and safety has been immensely difficult."

"Well, I can't say with what's being presented before me you're getting any closer to the goal," Lisa sighed. "Dare I even say you're straying  _further_  from it."

"Precisely why you are here!" Dr. Radetsky clapped his hands together. "You have this incredible ability to instantaneously process complex constructions and ideas, and we could very much use someone like you to be an extra eye for our theory-crafting."

Lisa shrugged. "I suppose I could offer my expertise whenever possible."

"Excellent! We have a stack of works here where we could use some proofing as well, please do look over them! Dr. Radetsky reached below the table and dropped a stack of paper as tall as his arms were long on the table. An audible oomph was heard and the dust gathered on the stack scattered all over the bigger blueprint on the table.

Lisa started rummaging through the pile, glancing at each sheet that came up before tossing it to another pile she started nearby.

"I expect this to be sorted out within the next 3 hours," Lisa sighed as she faced Dr. Radetsky.

"I eagerly anticipate your insight." Dr. Radetsky picked up the pile again. "Now, as you can see we are currently working on this desk, it would be very helpful if you moved elsewhere." With that, he dropped the pile into Lisa's arms, and the weight caused her to fall to the ground in rather comical fashion.

Lisa laid on the floor for a few seconds, before pushing herself upright and shaking her head. She winced a bit as she struggled to lift the stack of paper now on the floor, slowly inching her way towards a desk nearby.

As Lisa finally hoisted the stack of papers up on the desk and stood on the stool, the phone in her pocket rang. She took it out, swiped at the screen, and put the phone up to her ear.

"I'm currently preoccu-"

"Lisa what the heck! You were supposed to help me with a take-home quiz today!" Lincoln shouted through the phone.

"You literally have an English essay to do!" Lori's voice could be heard from a distance.

Lisa's eyes widened and she slightly gasped as she heard those words. It seems she was still capable of mental missteps; she completely forgot that she had promised to uphold a few obligations back home.

"I'll attempt to convey again that I am currently preoccupied with a volunteer opportunity in the Silicon Valley," the child prodigy stammered.

"But the quiz is due tomorrow!" Lincoln cried.

Lisa glanced at the stack of papers now on the desk and thought for a few seconds. She did just promise to look over these blueprints, but it was also important for Lincoln to maintain a proper sleep cycle as well. Maybe if she worked  _really_  fast she could get home an hour earlier.

"I'll return to indulge in your academic obligations at my early convenience, possibly around 7:00."

Just then, Dr. Radetsky approached Lisa with a stack of papers equally as large as the one Lisa struggled to carry before. He dropped the stack onto the desk, a loud oomph was made and dust scattered everywhere.

"There will be more coming your way shortly," Dr. Radetsky said as he walked away.

Lisa pinched the bridge of her nose. "Make that 9:00," she sighed.

"Please hurry Lisa!" Lincoln pleaded.

Lisa rolled her eyes as she hung up the phone and put it back in her pocket. This was gonna be  _fun_. She  _almost_  thought she'd have time to work on Trashy 2.0 when she got home. Frustrating how life got in the way sometimes.

The child prodigy sighed as she took a sheet from the pile of papers and started marking it with her edits and comments. While it was a little frustrating that the day wasn't going as she had originally planned, it was partially her fault for forgetting. The time she spent here was just as important as the time she spent helping her family. There were people in this world that needed her, and it was up to her to fulfill that social obligation. It's not like she was responsible for helping Lincoln and Lori at a specific time, right? She just said she would help them, she didn't say  _when_. Technically she was holding true to her word.

Lisa took another sheet from the stack and briefly paused as it dawned upon her just how much there was in the pile. The stack suddenly felt a lot larger than it looked when she actually took her time reading through everything. She was now tasked with reading over lines and lines of erroneous and misguided theories and crushing the dreams of many aspiring individuals. This was gonna be a long day, but she would show the world that she will make it through. She wouldn't let herself succumb to laziness. There were people that were in need, and she would take it upon herself to deliver. Lisa was capable, and what a shame it would be to throw it all to waste! She was far greater than many realized, and she would have the world know it, no matter what it takes.

_No matter what it takes._

* * *

Lisa suddenly flashed into existence in her room with drooping eyes and a yawn. She glanced at the clock as she started unequipping her glove.

9:02.

The child prodigy cursed herself for being  _slightly_  late to her promise. This time, it wasn't even because she forgot, it was because she was  _incapable_. She had plenty of opportunities to make things work with Lincoln and Lori. She had talked about helping with quizzes and essays several times before, she had plenty of opportunities to tend to her own family members, and yet she found herself sidetracked by tutoring, volunteering, or just her own personal side projects.

Lisa put the teleporting glove on her desk, dropped her bag nearby, and finally left the room. She turned towards the closet to her right and opened the door, revealing a certain white-haired boy reading Ace Savvy comics on the bed in his underwear.

Lincoln looked up, threw his comic to the side, and jumped off the bed, facing the 4-year-old. "There you are Lisa! I've been waiting all day!" Lincoln exclaimed.

"Apologies…" Lisa muttered. She took off her glasses and rubbed her eyes.

Lincoln raised an eyebrow as he observed his sister's general demeanor. She wasn't one to always sound super enthusiastic, but her quiet tone and the lack of incoherent techno-babble didn't sit well with Lincoln at all.

His gaze slowly softened at the child prodigy who was now pulling up a stool to the desk. "Lisa? What's going on?"

"The quiz. Let's get it over with." Lisa picked up a pencil off to the side and offered it to her older brother.

Lincoln reluctantly accepted the pencil and pulled his backpack on the floor up to the desk. "You look really tired, I can handle this myself."

Lisa's head titled down and her eyes drooped slightly before she snapped her head back up. "5th grade vocabulary test, I could do this in my sleep." She mumbled.

Lincoln slowly dug his hands into his backpack, took his quiz out, and put it on the desk in front of him. "Alright, I really hope you know what you're doing."

Lisa pinched herself in the arm and crawled up the stool, sitting next to her older brother. She then pointed at the first question with a pencil of her own. "Of course, Lincoln," Lisa muttered. "What do you make of this question?"

"Uhh…" Lincoln started tapping his pencil against his check as he mustered up the answer. "Okay, so the word is dictate, the sentence is 'It's important you dictate what I'm saying, because it will bring you luck.'"

"So, to dictate means to order someone to do something." Lisa murmured. She put an elbow on her desk and leaned her head against her hand.

Lincoln blinked and quickly reread the sentence on the quiz.

"Lisa, that doesn't make sense. You can't order someone to 'what you're saying'," Lincoln said.

The child prodigy's head suddenly snapped up awake. "Right! Right! Double entendre! How foolish of me," She gasped. Lisa lightly smacked herself in the face.

It was now Lincoln's turn to gasp. "Lisa don't do that to yourself! Even geniuses make mistakes sometimes, right?"

"I shouldn't have to…" Lisa muttered.

Lincoln furrowed his eyebrows at that response. It was weird for her to make a simple mistake like what had just happened, but it was especially concerning how hard Lisa was being on herself. Sure, she's gotten upset over making mistakes before, but slapping herself in the face was super out of the ordinary.

"Are you really sure you want to help me with this quiz Lisa?" he asked.

"Of course!" Lisa suddenly blurted out. "It's due tomorrow, isn't it?" she softly insisted.

"It's for the best…" she murmured.

_"It's the least I could do…"_

* * *

Time is a limited resource, and it was becoming especially limited for Lisa Loud, with her schedule being more jam-packed than ever. Today, she had an early morning tutoring session, then she went to the lab in Silicon Valley to review paperwork and blueprints, followed by volunteer at the hospital, yet another tutoring session, then  _finally_  she would return home… only to have to work on Lori's English paper.

Lisa made the finishing touches to her corrections for the blueprints before throwing that final piece of paper into the completed stack next to her. With that, she left out an audible sigh of relief and leaned back… only to realize it was a stool. She fell backwards and landed face first into the floor.

After a few seconds, the child prodigy pushed herself upright, took off her glasses and rubbed her eyes. She yawned as she retrieved her backpack from below the desk, retrieved a certain device she had taken full advantage of for the past several days, then hoisted the backpack on her shoulder. With that, she started making her way towards Dr. Radetzky.

This lack of self-awareness was rather abnormal to say the least. It wasn't even afternoon yet, and already Lisa was feeling these symptoms of fatigue. She truly pushing the limits of her physiology and willpower, just as the teleporting glove allowed her to push the limits of opportunity cost and constraints created by distance.

Conveniently, Lisa saw Dr. Radetzky walking towards her in the distance. He waved at the child prodigy, to which Lisa didn't respond. They both approached each other and eventually met face to face.

"Ah yes, how timely. I was just coming to get you," Dr. Radetzky said.

"I have the papers completed for the day," Lisa covered her mouth and yawned. "Feel free to collect them at my usual workplace to your leisure. I will be checking out now."

"Your commitment is appreciated," Dr. Radetzky replied.

Some commitment it was. Truth be told, Lisa wanted to be a Marie Curie, not a Katherine Johnson. Lisa was looking to take a more active role in the facility, but alas that hasn't been the case for the past few days now. Lisa's job was important, but her head just wasn't quite into the game.

Lisa took the Teleporting Glove out of her backpack, equipped it, and made the relevant gestures until she disappeared into nothingness.

Suddenly, Lisa found herself in her own personal lab, the comforting familiarity of the green wallpaper and messy desk welcoming her back. Immediately, she made her way towards the door, stumbling a little along the way. She seldom had time to relax, and it was imperative that she kept moving.

As the door opened, the muffled sounds from beyond turned into a familiar cacophony of an especially large family jam-packed into a single hallway. Lana and Lola were fighting again, Lynn was playing with her helium-packed football, and Luan was telling jokes to Lucy, who had her nose buried into a romance novel of hers.

To Lisa however, this regular occurrence that was the sight before her were but mere muffles and blurs. She couldn't bring herself to focus on anything. As Lisa walked through the hallway, she didn't bat an eye at Lynn nearly crashing into her diving towards her football. Lisa approached the stairs and started making her way down.

Downstairs, Lori and Leni were watching the Dream Boat squealing at the budding romance that was being built up on the screen. Lisa ignored the high-pitched fangirling and turned left towards the kitchen, where Lincoln was found eating Zombie Bran while reading a comic book.

Lincoln glanced down at the intruding family member and immediately jumped down from his seat.

"There you are Lisa!" Lincoln pointed a finger at her and briefly glared, before returning to his calmer demeanor. "I just got my quiz grade back and I totally bombed it! What gives?"

Lisa ignored Lincoln and walked towards a certain machine in the kitchen that she had become closely acquainted with the past few days.

"Wait… Lisa?" Lincoln gave an inquisitive stare. "Are you getting yourself coffee?"

Lisa dragged a stool up to the counter where the coffee machine was, crawled up the stool, and pulled the decanter out from the coffee maker. Despite it being really cold, there was still coffee sloshing around in the glass container. She reached for a mug to the side and poured the rest of the contents inside.

"Lisa, you've never drank coffee before, why are you doing this now?" Lincoln asked.

The child prodigy turned towards Lincoln, holding a mug in her hand. She stepped down from the stool and started walking towards the kitchen entrance. "Human limitations obstruct what would otherwise be a fully productive lifestyle," she muttered as she walked past Lincoln.

Lincoln continued staring at his sister until she started climbing the stairs and went out of view. Something was seriously wrong. First, she caused him to do poorly on a 5th grade vocabulary quiz, and now she was drinking coffee. With Lisa hurrying out the way however, he would have to think about that later. For now, he jumped back into his seat, picked up his comic book, and started munching at his Zombie Bran again, only to find it too soggy for enjoyment.

Lisa herself walked up the stairs toward the room, completely unphased by all the commotion in the hallway again. She entered her room, closed the door behind her, and walked up to the center.

As Lisa stopped at the center of the room, she glanced down at the dark brown liquid in the mug she bought upstairs, and a slight grimace formed on her face. Her fingers gripped the mug tighter as she put it up to her mouth and started drinking.

Lisa continued downing the coffee until the mug was completely empty. As soon as the bottom of the mug was reduced to a few brown streaks, she threw the mug to the side and stuck her tongue out in disgust. What an utterly disgusting bitter drink it was! How people could actually  _enjoy_  drinking it was something beyond her understanding.

The child prodigy, who was still wearing her teleporting glove, swiped at the screen, a slight yawn escaping her. If drinking coffee was what she had to do to remain function for the day, then she would do it, no matter now revolting it was. Millions of others consumed the beverage every day doing their part, it only made sense she did hers.

Not long after, Lisa made the relevant hand gestures, and any trace of her having been in the room completely disappeared.

Lisa suddenly found herself standing inside a room with white lights, white walls, white a lot of things. There were beds with blue curtains covering them on both sides of the room, with patients lying in some of them and nurses tending to those in need. There were carts and desks with their various medical devices and pharmaceutical drugs, nearby, while doctors and nurses alike frantically rushed from place to place. Lisa had teleported to the emergency room in the Royal Woods Hospital.

"Oh Lisa! Good to see you here!"

Lisa turned to see a woman in white physician's attire hugging a clipboard close to herself and pacing quickly towards the child prodigy.

"You came at just the right time! We're a little short on people right now and we really need an extra hand over here!" The woman exclaimed.

"How may I contribute?" Lisa asked.

"Here get this person's vitals, thanks so much for doing this!" The woman replied quickly. She gave Lisa the clipboard she was hugging earlier and pointed at one of the beds, which had a little girl around 7 years old sitting on the side. "I'll be back later!"

The woman dashed off, leaving Lisa standing in the middle of the commotion. With a sigh, she walked over to the bed, dragged a cart of medical materials over.

"Who are you?" the girl asked Lisa.

"I'm a volunteer," Lisa replied. She took a thermometer out, covered it with plastic, and pointed it towards the child. "Open up."

The girl opened her mouth and lifted her tongue, allowing Lisa to place the thermometer. The girl closed her mouth, and after a few seconds the thermometer beeped and Lisa took it out.

"98.6 degrees Fahrenheit, well with normal parameters…" Lisa muttered to herself as she wrote the result on the clipboard.

This was a nice change of pace from simply reading over papers and marking them all day. She already had enough of that in the Royal Woods Community College, she really wasn't up to spending her entire life on it. Here, she could have a more active role. It was nice helping others make a difference, but there was something about personally stepping into contribute as well that really resonated within herself. Soon she might be able to contribute with even more hands-on material, perhaps a surgery…

But another part of her just wasn't  _feeling it_. What she did was important, but she was seriously getting sick of having to be places all the time. She didn't realize it, but one of the luxuries she had back home was  _creative freedom_. There, she was free to work on whatever she wanted, whenever she wanted. She could go as crazy as she wanted, she could switch subjects if she got bored, and people weren't holding her back. Sure, she had ethical concerns raised from her family, but no one bat an eye when she made a literal time-machine prototype or gigantic spider robots large enough to cover half the roof and lift it up too. Out in the professional world, it was difficult to establish enough trust to do anything beyond just the basics.

"Aren't you a bit young to be working here?" The girl squeaked out.

Lisa's eyes briefly twitched as those words left the young girl's mouth. This was something people asked her all the time, and it didn't get any better. This was the kind of question she received that furthered her resolve to go a step further and use her gift as a prodigy for the greater good. The world would one day see her as something other than a 4-year-old girl.

The child prodigy ignored the girl's question and took out a stethoscope. She put the chestpiece onto the little girl's chest and instructed her to breathe.

"Uhh, are you okay?" The young girl asked.

Lisa's head shot up and she was back in reality. She had defocused and dazed off into another world. It occurred to her she was not paying attention to the girl's respiratory patterns at all.

"Yes… I am fine," Lisa hesitated. "Breathe in."

* * *

Lisa suddenly flashed into existence in her personal laboratory. Upon appearing, she collapsed to the floor and briefly closed her eyes, with the sweet and comforting embrace of sleep begged her to succumb.

After a few seconds, Lisa slapped herself awake in the face. With a groan, she forced herself upright and walked out into the hall with visible bags under her eyes that drooped every other second. She walked towards the stairs and started walking down, nearly collapsing as she hung onto the railing for dear life.

As she finally reached the bottom, she saw a dim light emanating from the kitchen area. She blinked her eyes and approached the room. When she entered the kitchen, she pulled a chair up to the counter, stood on the chair, and pulled the coffee pitcher from the coffee maker. Unfortunately, as she expected in a family of 13, there was none left. She sighed dejectedly as she reached for the coffee powder off to the side.

"Psst. Lisa."

Lisa's veins froze at the sudden voice and tap on her shoulder. She didn't have it in herself to gasp or jump backwards like she usually might. All she could do was stay shocked in place.

"What are you doing down here so late?"

Lisa inserted the coffee filter into the coffee maker and turned to face whoever induced the fight or flight response within herself. The figure that stood behind her was a certain white-haired boy with a flashlight in one hand, the other hand hovering over her shoulder, and a genuine look of concern on his face.

"Making coffee," Lisa grumbled.

"Really? I was expecting something like 'Look in front of you, genius! What does it look like I'm doing?'" Lincoln did a pantomime of Lisa's general demeanor and voice as he explained himself.

"I suppose," Lisa sighed. She opened the coffee powder container, scooped out a spoonful and dropped it into the filter.

Lincoln's gaze softened as he watched his younger sister prepare the coffee. It was already really weird seeing his sister brew coffee at all, the fact that she was doing it close to midnight set off some serious red flags.

"Alright Lisa, what's going on?" Lincoln suddenly exclaimed. He smacked the pitcher of water that Lisa held out of her hand, causing it to fall to the ground and spill its contents. "You're almost never up this late, you never brew coffee, and you're acting totally weird right now!" Lincoln started counting with his fingers for each successive infraction he listed as he questioned his younger sister.

Lisa hopped off the stool and started walking towards a cabinet. "How nice it must be to only worry about superficial traits like someone brewing coffee and 'acting totally weird'," Lisa remarked, making quotes with her fingers for emphasis.

Lincoln jumped right in front of her to block the way and spread his arms out. "What do you mean 'superficial'!? This is serious! You've been super dodgy all day and I'm not gonna move out of the way until you let me help you!"

Lisa stood in place for a few seconds staring blankly in Lincoln's general direction, albeit not necessarily looking at him.

"You wouldn't understand…" Lisa muttered.

Her dialogue said otherwise, but her neutral face shifted slightly as her gaze softened and her eyes started glimmering with a distressed plea for help.

Lincoln caught on, and he slowly inched closer and closer to his 4-year-old sister, arms still open in front of him. Lisa could only stay frozen in place as Lincoln got closer and started crouching down. She was at a complete loss of words for Lincoln's persistent attempts at reaching out to her. Lisa could only deny Lincoln's genuine warmth and concern for so long.

Eventually, Lincoln was directly in front of her, knees on the ground comparatively to Lisa standing fully upright. He reached in for a hug and enveloped his younger sister, head on top of his younger sister's shoulder. Lisa continued standing in place, arms bundled under Lincoln's warm embrace.

"Then help me understand, Lisa. Do it for me," whispered Lincoln.

A tear leaked out from Lisa's eyes, and it streaked down her face until it finally dropped off, landing on Lincoln's shoulder.

"I was out taking care of business," Lisa murmured.

"Doing what?" Lincoln responded.

"Tutoring… paperwork… volunteering…" Lisa's whisper transitioned to a soft whimper.

"You were out really late." Lincoln patted Lisa on the back.

What started as a few tears leaking down eventually developed into an outright sob, and the streaks left behind developed into a river. Lisa raised her arms to fully embrace Lincoln as well.

"I don't know if that's what I really want!" Lisa sobbed.

Lincoln held Lisa closer to himself as he witnessed this cathartic release.

"There, there, let it all out…" Lincoln hushed.

"I know I can do far more than what I'm doing right now! The world needs me! I want to do all these things, but some part of me says no!" Lisa wept on Lincoln's shoulder.

Lincoln simply continued hugging Lisa. She might not show it, but she was just as vulnerable emotionally as everyone else, and it was up to him to be there for her.

"Lisa… you already mean the world to me…" Lincoln whispered.

"Who else does!? Of course my family's gonna put me on a pedestal! I don't have to prove anything to you! I have to prove myself to the world out there!" Lisa cried.

Another moment of pause passed between the two, as Lincoln continued hugging and Lisa continued sobbing.

"You don't have to prove anything to me, and you don't have to prove anything to anyone else either," Lincoln said softly.

"What am I worth then Lincoln!? Tell me, what would I be good for if I didn't use this 'gift' of mine to serve a greater purpose!? Worthless!" Lisa bawled.

"Don't ever say that about yourself!" Lincoln scolded Lisa. He let go of the hug and placed both of his hands on Lisa's shoulders. "You're the smartest person to exist in Royal Woods if not the world, and you can make all sorts of crazy things most people could only dream of! Forget if some jerks aren't gonna recognize you for what you are, you've already proved yourself plenty!"

Lisa sniffled, then took off her now foggy glasses and rubbed her eyes. "What about the people I show myself to?" Lisa whimpered. "I already said I would uphold some obligations with them, what a dishonor backing out would be!"

Lincoln's head hung down slightly and a slight humming sound escaped his mouth.

"Lisa, I think you need a break," Lincoln finally asserted. "You don't have to quit anything. You're really tired, you've been out all day, and I've kinda missed you blowing things up all the time in your room. Just take a day to relax and give yourself more space in the future. You're messing up even more by keeping yourself up longer than you should."

Lisa sighed as she turned her head towards the pitcher and spilled water behind her. Lincoln might have had a point. She crossed the line when she started using coffee to keep herself awake, and her fatigue induced her failure to properly accommodate Lincoln with his take-home quiz. It seemed in her goal to prove herself to others, she had lost sight of her own personal self and the people that already held her dear to their heart.

The child prodigy's crying slowed down to a mere sniffle now as she turned to face her older brother again. "You make a good point, brother." She started wiping her glasses with her sweater. "So simple, yet so easily overlooked. I appreciate you bringing this insight to light."

"Hey, it's okay. Everyone needs a good heartfelt moment once in a while." Lincoln stood up, looked down at his younger sister and grinned. "Now how about we put you to sleep? You were supposed be in bed 3 hours ago!" He extended a hand out to the child prodigy.

Lisa hesitated at first, but then slowly raised her hand up, eventually gripping Lincoln's hand within hers. Lincoln gave off a warm smile again and led Lisa out of the kitchen with a light tug. Lisa followed, and they slowly made their way through the living room, up the stairs, turned right, and entered the child prodigy's personal laboratory.

Lincoln let go, walked up to Lisa's bed, and pulled the blanket off. Lisa crawled into bed, and Lincoln covered his sister with the blanket. With that, he leaned in closer to meet the child prodigy eye to eye.

"Good night Lisa, sweet dreams," Lincoln whispered.

Lisa turned a bit until she finally settled herself in place. "Good night," she murmured as she closed her eyes shut.

Lincoln leaned in to give Lisa a kiss on the check, then stood up and walked towards the door. Just as he opened the door, he briefly turned to look at his sister one more time, who was now lying peacefully still, eyes relaxed for the first time in days.

"I love you," he whispered before leaving the room and slowly closing the door.

For a few seconds, Lisa lay in place, not disturbing what would otherwise be a tranquil and silent environment. Eventually, she slightly shifted again and her mouth opened to utter words seldom ever heard from her.

"I love you too," she whispered.

Soon enough, the allure of sleep overpowered her, and she found herself drifting into an unconscious void.

* * *

Presently, Lisa could be seen in the Royal Woods Hospital again, tending to a patient who had just arrived in the emergency room again.

"Temperature normal, heart rate normal, respiratory rate normal, blood pressure normal. All vital signs well within parameters," Lisa mumbled to herself as she wrote the numbers on her clipboard.

As Lisa finished gathering information, she thanked the patient for their cooperation and walked a bit to a woman standing nearby. Lisa handed the clipboard over to her, and the woman accepted.

"That will be the conclusion of my services at this hospital today ma'am, once again I'll extend my gratitude to your continued authorization of my presence in this facility," Lisa said as she glanced upwards and adjusted her glasses.

"Thank  _you_  for continuing to show up!" The woman replied. She then leaned in closer to Lisa and put a hand up to the side of her mouth. "We might be a bit understaffed next week, I might be able to convince some people to let you join in on a gastric bypass surgery," she whispered.

Lisa's eyes lit up and a grin formed on her face as she stifled a squeal of excitement. "That is an opportunity I'll gladly undertake," she said with her usual voice, a hint of excitement seeping through.

The woman winked, and Lisa reached behind her to pull out the teleporting glove from her backpack. Lisa equipped the glove onto her hand, then started swiping at the screen until the desired destination was found. With the location selected, she clenched her fist as she thrust her arm inwards, then unclenched as she shot her arm out upward. An electrical aura soon surrounded her, and Lisa was gone in a flash.

Lisa suddenly was surrounded by noise. Not the usual commotion in the Loud house however; this was a different type of noise. She was surrounded by a far wider variety of people in the Ketcham park. Kids squealed in excitement as they slid down the slide, hollered at each other in the jungle gym, and zoomed around like crazy in the grass nearby.

The child prodigy turned for head for a bit, until she eventually caught a glimpse of her older brother waving his hand at her. Accompanying him were Lucy, Lana, Lola, and Lily, who also waved at Lisa.

The loud siblings in the distance ran over to Lisa, and the child prodigy gasped as they suddenly surrounded her.

"Hey Lisa! You made it!" Lincoln gleefully exclaimed as he waved his arms around.

"Heh, normally I wouldn't waste my time here, but you specifically requested I stop by." Lisa remarked.

"Aww come on, we all know you love the tire swing!" Lana playfully jabbed Lisa with her elbow.

"Heh, I suppose," Lisa confessed.

"Well, what are we doing just standing here? Why don't you all go enjoy yourselves?" Lincoln pointed over at the jungle gym nearby with a massive grin on his face. The other siblings squealed with excitement as they ran in the direction pointed at and went about their various activities. All except for a certain child prodigy.

"What's the matter Lisa?" Lincoln asked. "Aren't you gonna join?"

Lisa simply stared at the playground and all the children playing within. A part of her still scolded Lisa for being in this current situation in the first place. What was she doing, being  _a 4-year-old child!?_ Is this acceptable behavior for someone of Lisa's stature to take on!? Wasn't there a  _better use of her time_   _than this!?_ Her mind drifted back to a few days ago, when she was looking over blueprints, tutoring students, contributing  _something of worth_  to the world around her!

Eventually however, she was reminded of all the fatigue, the emotional instability, and the stifling of creative freedom of expression and innovation. What she did was important, yes, but at what cost? What good would her presence be if Lisa herself was in a miserable condition? What was life worth if she didn't feel worthwhile herself!?

"Eh, what the heck. Normally I wouldn't, but I've done enough for today!" With that, Lisa dashed towards the jungle gym and joined the three other siblings already there. Lincoln sat down at the grass and watched the kids scream and laugh. It was an uncommon occurrence to see Lisa joining in on these activities, but Lincoln found himself exceedingly proud of her for letting loose.

Because Lisa Loud was a 4-year-old child, and it certainly didn't hurt to act like one every once in a while.


	7. Thermal Distress Detector (part 1)

“Sha sha! Sha sha!”

Lisa lifted her head from the desk as Lily’s babbling broke Lisa’s concentration on the mess of papers strewn across the desk, each of them with their own set of doodles and scribbles. She was in her lab theory-crafting the potential for a tool that could simply make things _disappear_. Not replaced, moved out of sight, or turned invisible, straight up gone from existence. Of course, Lisa knew the law of conversion of mass made this impossible, but it was still fun to think about.  

She reached for a drawer and opened it, pulling out a sippy cup with a grayish viscous liquid inside. Lisa then leaped down from her chair and paced over to her infantile roommate, who stood in the crib with hands gripped onto the bars and an expectant look on her face. Lisa handed the sippy cup to Lily, who giggled as she accepted it and started sipping.

Suddenly, Lily spit the liquid out, causing Lisa to jump back as the infant splattered her and the crib with specks of gray sludge. Lily crossed her arms with a stern expression on her face, and she babbled with an angrier tone over what was just given to her.

“Well Lily, I’m quite disappointed to see your disapproval for this perfectly optimized nutritional beverage. It appears you’re far too young to understand the objective value of maintaining long-term physiological sustenance,” Lisa said as she wiped the gray sludge off of herself.

Just then, a knocking sound could be heard from the door.

Lisa started walking towards the door, leaving Lily to continue babbling in disapproval over what was fed to her just now. She approached the door, reached up and opened it.

At the entrance was a certain 16-year-old blonde, who was none other than Leni Loud. However, instead of her usual upbeat demeanor, Leni had her head hung down and a slight frown could be seen on her face. Her hands were noticeably not put up to her chest like they usually were, instead hanging down to her side.

“Hi Lisa…” Leni started quietly. She glanced up at Lisa before staring down at the ground again.

Lisa made an audible humming sound as she observed Leni in front of her. Something was clearly bothering her. It’s not like Leni was always happy and sunshine, but this was clearly more than just her average pang of sadness.

“Greetings, 2nd eldest sibling. What brings you to my domain?” Lisa eventually asked.

“Eni!” Lily could be heard off to the side. The baby grinned, seemingly unaware of the state Leni found herself in.

Leni walked past Lisa and over to the crib, until she was directly in front of Lily. She reached her arms in and lifted Lily out, cradling the infant within her arms.

“Aww, Lily, aren’t you so precious…” Leni cooed while stroking Lily’s head. A slight smile appeared on Leni’s face, and for a moment her eyes sparkled with genuine bliss.  

Lisa squinted her eyes as she continued observing Leni’s behavior.

Leni sat down on the floor and let Lily go from her arms. Lily aimlessly started crawling around the room, and Leni sighed longingly as she admired her youngest sister.

“I see you’re quite enjoying yourself,” Lisa commented.

What remained of Leni’s positivity disappeared from her face, and she reverted to hanging her head down with a gloomy expression.

“Lily’s always just so happy, it makes me happy too,” Leni sighed.

“Yes, but I sense that you don’t find yourself in a similar emotional state to our infantile unit present in this room,” Lisa replied. She walked over to where Leni was and sat down with her. Lisa and Leni both watched Lily as she crawled towards the door and stood up to try and open it.

Leni took a deep breath and started looking down towards the ground again. “Something really sad happened,” she finally said.

Lisa tilted her head and motioned for Leni to continue.

 “I like, have a friend named Janna, and she used to talk about her dog all the time. She called it a chihuahua, I don’t know what a wawa is or why you’d chew it, but her dog was just one of the sweetest things I’ve ever seen!” A slight smile briefly appeared on her face before she reverted to her previous expression. “We’d see pictures of it online, we’d hear stories about it, I’ve seen it a few times, it just looked like the happiest thing in the world…”

“I see...” Lisa replied.

“But Janna, she’s not as happy anymore…” Leni trailed off as she uttered those words.

Lily now crawled back to where Leni was, and Leni reached forward to cradle Lily within her arms again. Once Lily was on her lap, Leni started slowly rocking the baby back and forth.

“Today, another friend told me Janna dog died,” Leni sighed. “Everyone around me was talking about how she stopped going out, or posting pictures, and I didn’t notice any of it! And now she’s all alone, because no one cared enough. I wasn’t there to help her feel better…”

Leni turned her head towards Lisa, who was now also looking down at the ground below.

“I really wanna make her feel better somehow,” Leni murmured.

Lisa started tracing arbitrary patterns on the rug in front of her. “So why come to me? What do I have to offer?”

Leni put Lisa down on the ground in front of her, then turned her whole body towards Lisa. Her arms reached over and turned Lisa until they were facing each other.  “Do you think Janna can have her dog back?”

Lisa raised an eyebrow. “Pardon me?”

Leni put her hands on Lisa’s shoulders. “Can you bring back Janna’s dog? Make her happy again?”

Lisa glanced off to the side, then back at Leni’s pleading face above.

“Am I to understand that you are requesting what essentially amounts to the resurrection of a previously deceased sentient being?”

Leni shook her head. “No, I want to bring Janna’s dog back.”

“That’s what I-” Lisa paused, before shaking her head and sighing. “Look, I’m afraid that’s not going to be possible. There are just some things that won’t be practical in my lifetime.”

Leni sulked a bit at that response. “Oh, okay, maybe I should go ask Lucy,” she sighed.

“No, Leni,” Lisa stood up and lifted Leni’s hands off from her shoulders. “Bringing people back from death isn’t possible period. You’re going to have to accept that what happened to Janna is a done deal.”

“Oh, got it,” Leni replied. “I just wish I could have been there for Janna. I wish it was easier for me to see if people are sad. Some people just need a friend to be there.”

“Leni, allow me to teach you a very important life lesson.” Lisa adjusted her glasses. “Sometimes, in life, there will be circumstances you can’t realistically change for the better. Frankly, to expect yourself to be able to better the emotional state of every single given individual you may encounter or hold dear to yourself comes off as a severe delusion of grandeur. In the grand scheme of things, it would do good to accept the misfortune that exists in life, and to not take it to heart. There isn’t much you can do about Janna’s dog dying.”

Leni stood up and walked towards Lily, who was now at Lisa’s desk about to open a drawer. She picked Lily up, then walked over the crib and lowered her inside.

“But I can’t just watch my friend be sad. Why should she have to be? She matters to me, I can’t just ignore her.” Leni’s wavering eyes looked down at Lily, who was excitedly reaching her arms up towards her older sister. Leni slightly smiled at that.

Lisa briefly raised her finger and opened her mouth to speak before pausing. _“You’re doing this to yourself,”_ she wanted to say. _“It’s pointless dwelling any further_.”

But Leni clearly wasn’t going to have any of it. Leni just wasn’t going to _understand_. She couldn’t be expected to put together all the ideas Lisa put before her, she couldn’t be expected to actually feel better from anything Lisa presented. Just talking to her wasn’t going to do anything.

“I’m gonna go talk to Lori about this, she always knows how to cheer me up. Thanks for trying Lisa…” Leni feigned a smile and waved a bit before she made her way towards the door and left the room.

Lisa put a hand up to her chin. It seemed every time she tried talking to her, she would either forget, or not understand. There had to be a better way to make her point. It was really important that she got through to Leni. If she didn’t, then Leni would only continue to feel aimless sorrow for situations beyond her reach. Why couldn’t she just _see_ what the issue was?

A lightbulb lit up above Lisa’s head. Lisa slightly gasped and her eyes widened at the sudden realization.

 _“Why, I could just make Leni_ see _my point! No amount of talking will ever get through to her, it’s about time I changed my methodology!”_

“Sha sha!” Lily babbled again.

Lisa sighed, but this time it wasn’t out of exasperation. A slight smile emerged as she turned to address her lone younger sibling. “Fine, I do have prepared means of supplementing nutrients beyond this chemical compound you’ve rejected,” Lisa said as she walked over to her desk. There, she opened a drawer and produced another sippy cup, this time with a translucent light brown liquid resembling apple juice.

Lily giggled as Lisa walked over and gave the sippy cup to her. Lisa stood and admired Lily for a second, happiness radiating from her only younger sibling. A plan was brewing in the child prodigy’s brain, and in due time, Leni would have first-hand experience of what her problem was. If she wanted to be there for others in times of need, then that she shall get!  

* * *

5 minutes later, Lisa had finished feeding Lily and changing her diapers. Now, Lisa could be seen opening the door and stepping out into the hallway. There was a certain older sister of hers that needed to have some sense knocked into herself. Leni couldn’t be left to dwell any further than she already was.

Lisa walked through the hallway and approached Lori and Leni’s room, passing through Lucy fighting with Lynn over black spray paint and Luan was making puns with her trusty ventriloquist dummy. Soon, Lisa was right in front of the door, and she reached for the doorknob, turned it, and pushed it open.

In front of Lisa, Lori and Leni were in their respective beds. Leni lied down arms and legs sprawled across the bed, while Lori sat leaning against the back presumably texting on her phone.

“I really I could have been there for her,” Leni said with a hint of dejection.

Lori glanced up from the screen and stopped tapping away at her phone. She put her phone in her pocket and turned to face Leni.

“I’m really sorry to hear about that Leni,” Lori said.

“Yeah, it’s just really hard to look at her now, she’s not as happy and sunshiny as she used to be,” Leni moped.

Lisa watched the exchange between the two sisters for a while longer.

“Well, Leni, I’m sure you did the best you could. What’s important now is to try and be there when possible,” Lori reassuringly asserted.

“Yeah, I thought if she got her dog back then she would be happy again, but Lisa told me I can’t do that.” Leni continued staring at the ceiling.

“Speak of the devil, what are you doing here Lisa?”

Lori’s eyes were directed at Lisa now, and a slight stern glare could be detected from them. Lisa tilted her head as she returned the look towards her older sibling.

“If I may, eldest sibling,” Lisa realigned her head and adjusted her glasses. “I have a matter I wish to discuss with Leni alone,” she said.

“Not now, Leni’s going through a tough time,” Lori replied.

“No, it’s okay. Thanks for listening to me Lori. I’ll talk to you again later.” Leni lifted herself up from the bed and sat upright on the mattress.

Lori shrugged. “Alright, I hope you feel better Leni. You can literally come talk to me anytime.” With that, she hopped off her bed and left the room, leaving Lisa and Leni alone.

“You may be rather enthused to hear that I have a solution which may be to your liking,” Lisa started.

“Ooh, can Janna have her dog back?” Leni perked up a bit and the bright smile she had come to be known for started reappearing on her face.

Lisa pinched the bridge of her nose. “I’m afraid not, as I’ve made clear several times now she will not get her dog back. However, there is a way to increase happiness going forward.”

Leni tilted her head. “What do you mean?”  

“What I propose is the implementation of a device that will allow you to detect when a given individual in your proximity is undergoing some kind of distress, dubbed thee the ‘Thermal Distress Detector’”

Lisa put her hands behind her back and started pacing around the room.

“The device would detect pheromones released by individuals, and you should receive a type of thermal response to their inner emotions based on their current state. If they are in a particularly jubilant state, you should sense a type of warmth, and if they are especially distressed, there should be an unsettling chill emanating from them.”

Lisa turned to look at her older sister, who was now in front of a mirror inspecting her face.

The child prodigy facepalmed. “Have you completely ignored my proposition for the entirety of my presentation?”

Leni, startled, turned over to Lisa with a sheepish grin on her face. “Oh, sorry, it was kinda confusing keeping track of what you said. What’s a pheromone? How do fairs moan? Like, fairs don’t talk right?”

Lisa rolled her eyes and walked up to the mirror in front of Leni. “Let me rephrase: You get cold if someone needs help, you get warm if someone’s happy. I can make that happen. Sound like a plan?”

Leni put an index finger up to her cheek with a confused expression while Lisa stood and watched Leni’s wheels turn inside her head.

Eventually, Leni’s eyes lit up and she got up from the stool. The idea behind just what Lisa was proposing had just dawned upon her, and suffice it to say, she definitely was enthused.

“Aww Lisa, you would do that for me?” Leni squealed excitedly as she reached over for a hug. Lisa stood with arms hanging right next to her as Leni squeezed her younger sister tight with both arms, a familiar bliss emanating from her at every angle. “Thanks Lisa, you’re the best!”

Lisa merely stood in place absolutely still with wavering eyes.

“I appreciate that sentiment,” Lisa responded in a monotone voice.

Leni eventually let go and stood up as her usual cheerful self. Her hands were propped up in front of her chest like they previously were again, and she had a full-on smile at this point.

“Expect results within the next morning,” Lisa said.

“Okay, got it!” Leni chirped.

Lisa turned back towards the door and made her way to her room, doubt stirring up within her conscience. She couldn’t quite put a finger on it, but something just didn’t feel right

She entered her room, approached her desk, and sat down at the stool. Lisa pulled out yet another piece of paper and a pencil. Surely, Leni’s outlook on life would change drastically, but a twinge of guilt could be felt within Lisa. There was a certain charm to just how far Leni would go to make sure someone was feeling okay, and in some respects, it was a bit of a shame to have to see that go. She would, in some ways, fundamentally change Leni’s character.

Lisa started drafting her blueprint, at first slowly and carefully. As she continued however, her writing and markings progressively became faster as another sensation overtook the guilt from within; a new sense of determination manifested itself in its place. Determination to show Leni the path, determination to make her a better person, determination to _be in the right_. She would get her message across, and if this tool was the way to do it, then so be it. The life lessons learned were too important, and they would be ones Leni would never forget!

* * *

A bright light shined directly in Leni’s face.

Leni groggily rubbed her eyes, hoisted her upper body upright and stretched on her bed. After stretching, she looked around and saw Lori walking away from the light switch towards her closet. Leni removed the blanket from her legs and hopped off the bed, making her way towards the shared closet where her older sister was.

As she approached the closet however, a certain sensation was made apparent to Leni: cold. A chilling sensation emanated from Lori, tingling Leni with their icy vapor. Goosebumps gradually formed, and Leni started shivering slightly as the chilling sensation slowly shifted to outright frigidity the closer she got.

Soon, she was directly to the left of Lori. The coldness was comparable to if her entire right body was plastered with ice packs.

“Lori, is it winter already?” Leni asked, rubbing her right arm as she did so.

“What? We just got _out_ of winter, we’re right in the middle of spring.” Lori replied. She walked over to the mirror and started applying makeup on her face.

The freezing sensation shifted positions again, briefly brushing past her back then towards Leni’s left area, until the temperature became more and more distant.

“You know, it’s interesting that you weren’t wearing your blindfold while sleeping today,” Lori commented.

Leni’s eyes widened as she put her hands up to her eyes. Sure enough, no blindfold.

“O M gosh! How did that happen! I never forget to do that!” Leni exclaimed.

Lori grunted a bit, then continued working on her makeup. Leni quickly changed her clothes at the closet and made her way towards the door. A similar sensation of temperature suddenly decreasing then increasing happened as Leni passed by her older sister again. What was especially weird as how Leni didn’t just _feel_ the coldness, she could somehow see it too. Lori just _looked_ cold for some reason.

As Leni left the room, she was greeted with a short line to the bathroom, consisting of Lana, Lynn, and Luan. However, this time was different, and not just because the line was shorter than usual. In front of here was a symphony of varying temperatures. Some slightly chilly, some warm, most completely average.

Leni walked to the back of the line, where Luan was apparently in handcuffs and struggling to pick herself out.

“Hey Leni, check this out!” Luan turned behind to face Leni and put her arms out in front of her. “These chains are really _cuff_ to break through!” she laughed. “Get it?”

Despite Luan’s cheerful appearance, Leni sensed a slight chill from Luan. They were nowhere near as cold as Lori was, but it was still as if a light cold breeze was blowing at you in the fall.

“Why are you wearing handcuffs?” Leni asked. “Did you do something wrong?”

“Oh, I’m practicing some magic tricks! I asked Luna to lock me in these handcuffs so I could practice breaking out of them. I think I remember how to do it…” Luan trailed off, and she returned to trying to break herself free. The line moved up as Lana went in the bathroom.

The light chill from Luan grew larger, and the breeze was gradually turning into a stronger wind. Leni watched as Luan continued struggling, and she caught a glimpse of Luan’s eye twitching with a hint of maniacal frustration.

Leni’s gaze on Luan softened and a concerned expression became more apparent on her face. “Luan, are you okay?” Leni asked.

“Yeah, just gotta get this taken care of before it’s my turn!” Luan snapped. “Good to give yourself an incentive to learn new tricks! Can’t use the bathroom if my hands are still chained together, can I?” she nervously laughed.

“Hah, I guess that means I should go really fast then!” Lynn rubbed her hands together and dashed inside just as Lana walked out. Luan’s eyes widened and she frantically rattled her chains as she desperately tried to free herself.

“Luan, I think you need someone to get those handcuffs off,” Leni commented.

The family clown struggled for a few more seconds before giving off an exasperated sigh and putting her arms in front of Leni. “Alright fine, get me out of here!”

Leni produced a hairpin from her pocket and picked away at the lock on the handcuff. Within a second, a satisfying click was heard, and the handcuffs fell from Luan’s hands.

“Hey wow, you did it! Thanks Leni!” Luan said. “I don’t know if I could have done it without you?

In the moment Leni freed Luan from her handcuffs, she could have sworn she felt an immediate burst of warmth radiating from her sister. This was a stark comparison to the coldness she felt prior with Lori and Luan. This was as if a springtime sun was shining on her with just the right temperature. It was a different feeling from the numbing feeling of coldness she had to endure earlier. This new sensation instilled her with a sense of serenity and happiness for others. One thing was for sure: Leni really liked this feeling.

Just then, the bathroom door opened, and Lynn emerged with a smug look on her face. Luan followed by walking into the bathroom herself and closing the door behind her.

“Aww, I kinda thought it would be fun to give her a hard time in there,” Lynn slightly giggled as she walked past Leni.

 “I see you’ve taken advantage of the capabilities of the device I’ve implanted on you previously.”

Leni’s heart skipped a beat as a new voice came to her attention. She turned around to see none other than Lisa, who was looking up with an unamused expression.

“Capabi- device- what?” Leni wondered to herself.

“The thermal distress detector. Remember what I described yesterday?” Lisa inquired further.

Leni put a finger up to her cheek and glanced up at the ceiling. Distress detector sounded vaguely familiar…

“You know, you’ve probably been experiencing abnormal shifts in temperature, like sudden coldness perhaps?”

Leni gasped. That was exactly what happened with Lori and Luan!

“Ohhh, I get it! You did that to me!” Leni beamed at that realization.

“Took you long enough.” Lisa rolled her eyes.

Just then, Luan walked out of the bathroom.

“Thanks again for freeing me Leni!” Luan said. “I should practice a bit more next time!”

“Totes!” Leni chirped.

Lisa took off her glasses and started wiping them on her sweater. “You may be going about displaying your whimsical little tokens of goodwill now, but soon you will see what is in store for the world out there. Don’t get your hopes up.”

Leni blinked and thought for a few seconds. Luan looked so happy to be free, and it was all because Leni was there to help her. If Leni didn’t help, then she would be stuck for a while, and she’d have a really hard time doing anything in the bathroom! Just imagine seeing a zit on your face and not being able to do anything about it!

“Okay Lisa,” Leni hesitated with her response. “Thanks for doing this!”

Leni turned to open the door, went inside, briefly turned her head to look at her sister again, before finally closing the door behind her.

Immediately, the first thing Leni did was look at herself in the mirror. Butterflies flew around in her stomach as she contemplated what Lisa had told her just now. What could possibly go wrong with just being nice to others? To make others happy? What was Lisa trying to tell her?

Leni turned open the faucet, cupped her hands under the flowing water, and splashed herself in the face a few times. In that moment, the cool refreshing water dripped off her face, and with it all her worries washed off too. None of what Lisa said should matter. What was important was that Leni was happy and everyone else was happy.

Within a few minutes, Leni walked out the bathroom, and the line had gotten longer than before with the new addition of Lincoln, Lola, and Lucy, all of which appeared to be warm. Lisa still stood in the front, and Leni glanced at her as she walked by. Lisa acknowledged Leni’s presence, and the ditzy fashionista turned away upon making eye contact.

She really didn’t need Lisa’s negative attitude right now.

* * *

“Alright guys, we’re at school!” Lori announced.

Lincoln, Lucy, Lola, Lana, and Lisa all bid their goodbyes and left Vanzilla, leaving the remaining high schoolers to their own devices.

Leni sat in the passenger’s seat next to Lori while Luna and Luan sat in the seats behind them. There was a constant warmth radiating from behind Leni, and a contrasting chill directly to the left.

Thinking about it now, Lori felt cold all morning, starting from right when Lori woke up to this very moment driving the girls to school. Leni turned her head to see Luna and Luan laughing and overall having a good time, as they told jokes and stories about jamming it out with friends. There was something super eerie about how cold Lori was compared to her completely normal external appearance as the responsible and caring older sibling she was.

The ride continued on for a few more minutes until Lori finally parked in front of the high school.

“Alright guys, go to class!” Lori waved her hand towards the school. Luna and Luan wasted no time jumping out of Vanzilla. Once outside, they turned towards Vanzilla to see Lori, hands still gripped on the steering wheel and not moving from her seat.

“Dude, aren’t you coming with us?” Luna yelled from outside.

“You guys go on ahead, I literally just wanna be alone for a while,” Lori replied.

Luna shrugged and walked off towards the school.

Leni didn’t move from her seat and made no effort to unbuckle or open the door. She turned and gazed at Lori, who had reclined in her seat and heaved a sigh.

“Leni, what are you still doing here?” Lori sighed while continuing to stare at the ceiling. “You’re gonna be late.”

For a few seconds, Leni remained in place, unsure of how to respond. A genuine look of concern slowly formed on Leni’s face. Lori might not have given many outward signs, but something was clearly wrong within.

“Lori… I think we need to talk,” Leni started.

“Come on Leni, we can do plenty of that later.” Lori waved her hand dismissively.

“It’s not about me Lori,” Leni responded. “It’s about you.”

“I’m fine, I just need a moment.” Lori turned her head to the left away from Leni.

A few seconds passed again as Leni contemplated her next move. She just had to get Lori to talk somehow. She couldn’t keep her feelings bottled up forever.

Eventually, Leni put a hand on Lori’s shoulder. “You told me I could come talk to you any time, you should talk to me too. Something’s clearly bothering you.”

Lori turned her head to face Leni. “Do you think I’m responsible? Mature?” she said.

Leni lurched back a bit at that. “What? You’re like, totes the most responsible and mature person ever!”

“I’m not so sure about that…” Lori muttered.

“Really? Why?” Leni asked.

“Well, I literally have to face the reality soon. I’m getting older, and I’m gonna go off to college.” Lori turned away from Leni. “I’m not sure if I’m ready to live independently. I’ll have to get a job to help pay the bills, and I’ll have to juggle all that with school and making sure things are okay with Bobby. It’s all so overwhelming…”

Leni put a finger up to her cheek as she thought of just how to respond. So much information to keep track of, and they would easily become fleeting memories.

“Well, I think you’re ready,” Leni eventually asserted.

“You’re just saying that,” Lori said dismissively.

More time spent processing and thinking.

“You’re my older sister. You’re all of our older sisters.” Leni eventually said.

“Yeah, and I’ve taken care of all you guys for as long as I’ve lived!” Lori exclaimed as she turned over to face Leni. “Mom and dad put me in charge all the time, and I have to make sure you guys are on your best behavior! I have to know you guys, remember everything, it’s really stressful!” Lori crossed her arms.

“You’re really good at it,” Leni commented.

“I’d sure hope so.” Lori uncrossed her arms and her eyes glanced down at the floor. “I don’t know, this is all so new to me and if I mess up, that’s really bad.”

 “But you’re so smart!” Leni exclaimed. “Like, you’re always willing to talk to us and you always know what to do! You’re already a teacher to us, and you already have a job as the best older sister ever!”

The crippling icy sensation from Lori slowly but surely dissipated. Her temperature was now more akin to a delightfully cold ice cream cone. Lori downbeat expression slowly subsided, and she couldn’t help but slightly grin at what Leni said.

“Aw, Leni, you don’t have to,” Lori said.

“When you’re feeling down, someone should always be there to make you feel better.” Leni slightly frowned and glanced away as she thought back to the incident with Janna earlier. “You deserve to be reminded of how amazing you are. If you can take care of 10 younger siblings, you could totes handle work and stuff!” Leni glanced back at Lori with an upbeat smile.

Lori was now outright smiling herself. She turned her head up to face her sister.

“Thanks Leni, you’re literally a great sister.” Lori reached in for a hug, which Leni gladly returned. The combination of literal warmth from Lori and figurative warmth of the hug mingled together to create a blissful embrace unlike any other.  

The hug lasted for several seconds until Lori finally broke away. She took her phone out of her pocket and checked the screen. “Well, we’re a few minutes late now. Sorry I kept you here.” Lori apologized.

“If it’s for you, it’s totes worth it!” Leni chirped.

The duo got out of Vanzilla and started making their way towards the school building.

Leni felt warm inside herself now with how she made Lori’s day a lot better. Lori might have continued having serious doubts about herself if she went unnoticed, but thanks to what Lisa had created, she was able to keep another person from descending into despair. Her upbeat smile widened as she continued; with her newfound powers, she could make people never have to be sad again. She could make the world a happier place.

That thought made Leni herself happy.


	8. Thermal Distress Detector (part 2)

The hallway was bustling with the chatter of several high schoolers, trying to make their way to their classes and get the day over with. In the middle of it all was Leni Loud, rather upbeat as usual. Her eyes darted across the hallway as she walked through, taking in these new sensory experiences that she had obtained earlier. Every student and teacher within her field of vision gave off an impression of warm or coldness, and it was hard to distinguish between any of them.

When Leni looked downwards, she spotted a wallet in front of her. People seemed to be walking around it, but no one was actually interacting with the wallet.

Leni squinted her eyes and puckered her lips. Why would there be a wallet thrown in the middle of the hallway?

She walked up to the wallet until she was right above it, then put a finger up to her cheek as she made a humming noise. It wasn't like someone would just leave it there, right? Maybe she should hold on to it, someone else might take it if she doesn't!

Leni grinned at that thought. She crouched down, picked the wallet up, then stood upright with the wallet in her hand.

"Ugh, I know I had it here somewhere!" a voice behind her hissed.

Leni perked up with that. A slight chill brushed past Leni's right, coming from behind and dissipating towards the front. Following the direction of the chill, Leni saw a girl pacing quickly, scanning the hallway floor as she went further into the distance.

"Wait! I think you dropped something!" Leni paced quickly towards the girl ahead of her, waving her arm with the wallet in her hand.

The girl turned around in lieu of Leni's pursuit. Her eyes widened, jaws dropped, and a small gasp was heard from her. She stopped, and Leni quickly caught up, slightly out of breath.

"Here you go," Leni gasped as she passed the wallet over to her.

Leni was slightly warm from running just now, but soon, the presence in front of her would match the same temperature.

"Oh my god thank you! Just imagine if I had actually lost it for good!" the girl nervously giggled and playfully waved her hand.

"I'm pretty sure losing the wallet was a  _bad_ thing, Leni responded.

The girl raised an eyebrow as her face shifted to one of a neutral expression, before she put her right hand in front of her, grabbed Leni's right hand, and started shaking it.

"Well, in any case, thanks! Have a good day!"

Leni, who at first was being shaken forcefully by the girl, was now actively engaging in the handshake as well, grinning from ear to ear.

"Totes!" Leni chirped.

Leni beamed at that response. This high-spirited handshake she was receiving was an indication of her success. The weight on her shoulders would be lifted little by little as she took it upon herself to make other people lead a happier life. That really made her feel like she  _mattered_.

The girl broke the handshake then walked past Leni, giving a final wave before leaving Leni's field of vision. Leni herself continued walking through the hall until she finally arrived in front of the entrance to her next class. She opened the door, made her way to her assigned desk in the back row, sat down, and started unpacking.

Looking around her classroom, the assortment of temperatures shown by her 'heat vision' were much more clearly defined, with everyone sitting at their assigned seats in an orderly fashion. The people directly in front and next to Leni were also exhibiting temperate sensations of their own; lukewarm to her right and ahead of her, and chilling to her left.

Leni turned left to see the source of the frigidity, seeing none other than Janna. The girl that had lost her dog earlier, disconnected herself from her social life, and had an uncanny ability to maintain a façade of her composure.

Normally, Leni would have happily greeted Janna, maybe give her a hug and ask how her day was. However, Leni knew the full story by now. Janna may not look like it, but there was an internal cry for help screaming to be let out from within.

At the front, the teacher was swiping away at their phone on their desk. He glanced up at the class, then upwards towards the clock at the back of the room. The teacher then put the phone into his pocket, stood up, and walked towards the center of the blackboard.

"Good morning students, today we will continue our history lesson on Susan B. Anthony and her contributions to first wave feminism in the USA." The teacher started writing on the blackboard.

_"Wait, if it's about a girl, shouldn't this be a herstory lesson?"_

Leni opened her notebook to a mess of poor handwriting, spelling, and little design notes for her tailoring endeavors she would undertake later. There was a stark difference between the effort and detail put into the school notes compared to the non-history related material. The design notes were neatly drawn and accurately scaled, while her history notes were mostly one-note, nondescript and disorganized.

A literal nagging sensation pulled at her from the left, the same chilling breeze constantly flowing past her. Leni glanced to her left to see Janna with her elbow on the table, head rested on her left hand, and pencil tapping on her open notebook.

The teacher's continuous blabbering about women's suffrage and the Seneca Falls Convention were but mere muffles at this point as the wheels continued to turn in Leni's head. There were more important matters to focus on right now. Leni just knew she had to get through to her. But how?

Leni put an elbow on her desk and rested her arm as well while she stared off into Janna's general direction. It couldn't be too different from talking to Lori, right? Lori didn't want to talk about her problems either, but that was because she wasn't sure of herself. Janna couldn't be much different right? Deep down, they all need someone to talk to, and Leni would be the person they'd do it with.

Suddenly, Janna stood up from her seat and Leni snapped back to reality. Janna turned and walked past Leni towards the classroom door, slipping out and away from the classroom with minimal noise. During all of this, Leni quickly turned her back down at her notebook, then turned her head up towards the entrance as Janna passed her.

The time was now. Leni got up from her seat, walked towards the door, and slipped out the room as well.

Outside, the hallway looked  _very_ different from just a few minutes earlier. They were nearly empty, save for a few stragglers playing on their phone or arriving late. Leni looked around and spotted Janna off to the far right, who was just making a right turn.

Leni slowly paced towards that direction, continuing to carefully consider her words and actions. She didn't want to be too aggressive, but she didn't want to delay too much either. If she was too in her face, then she wouldn't give Janna enough space. However, if she didn't show up soon enough, then she'd lose her chance to talk to her for a while.

At the intersection, Leni looked to her right and saw Janna entering the girl's locker room. Leni followed her inside.

Janna made a few twists and turns before she eventually stopped in front of a locker. She put her back up to the locker, slid down, and curled up clutching her knees to her chest with her arms.

Leni watched from the distance, arms propped up to her chest as usual and a concerned expression on her face. She took a deep breath before she started approaching Janna, taking slow deliberate steps.

As Leni got closer and closer, Janna didn't do so much as move a muscle at all. She simply continued to stare down at the ground in the same position.

Soon, Leni was right nearby Janna, who didn't turn her head up or otherwise acknowledge Leni's presence at all. Leni shivered as she felt an all-too-familiar feeling from earlier in the classroom now directly in front of her, almost as if she was standing in front of an open freezer.

"Hi Janna." Leni sheepishly grinned and did a small wave.

Janna didn't respond. Leni stared observing Janna's unmoving posture, and a lump started forming in her throat.

Slowly, Leni crouched down, then rested herself on the floor and crossed her legs. She faced Janna and twiddled her thumbs as she struggled to think of anything to say at all.

"I heard what happened."

Still nothing.

"Are you okay?"

Janna put her head down closer to her knees.

"Do you, like, wanna talk about it?"

"What do you want?" Janna muttered.

Leni glanced at the ground, then back up at Janna. "Everyone needs someone to talk to once in a while." She scooched closer and placed a hand on Janna's shoulder, fingers and palms numb to the touch. "It'll make you feel better."

Janna brushed Leni's hand off her shoulder. "Why are you doing this?"

Leni raised her hand again before putting it down on her lap. "No one should ever have to feel the way you feel right now," Leni responded.

"No, why are you doing this to  _me_?" Janna's voice was clearer now and had a stern undertone.

Leni lurched back a bit. "Wha- why not? We're friends, and that's what friends do!"

Janna lifted her head up and sighed. "We're not like that."

Leni raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean?"

Janna rolled her eyes. "I barely know what your name is-"

"Oh, my name is Leni!" She extended her right hand towards Janna, who ignored it and continued to clutch her knees. Leni let her arm drop back on her lap.

"We haven't really talked often-"

"Didn't we talk that one time when I found you at the mall?" Leni interrupted again. "That was a few weeks ago!"

"Leni!" Janna hissed. "We're not friends! We barely know each other!"

Leni choked a bit at that revelation. Out of all the possible things Janna could have said, that was one she didn't see coming at all.

"What?" Leni squeaked.

"We're just barely classmates!" Janna exclaimed. "You see me sitting next to you in history class and that's it! How the hell do you even know about my life outside of school?! What the hell have we ever done aside from say hi in school?!" She raised her arms in exasperation.

Leni was frozen in place by Janna's sudden outburst. She pored through her proverbial pages for anything: times they really talked to each other, times they may have hung out anywhere at all, signs of a broken friendship, a reason for Janna to like or dislike Leni at all. But alas, that was to no avail.

"Nothing?" Leni answered meekly.

"Yet here you are, trying to be Mother Teresa." Janna proclaimed. "Everyone is a helpless fallen angel that'll worship you for eternity as you rain innocent bliss upon this world that no one asked for!"

Leni fought against every instinct within herself to run and pretend she was never there. She had to remain strong for someone in need, but everything around her seemed to be out to keep Leni from doing just that. Everything was just so  _confusing_. Not friends? Mother Teresa? She didn't quite understand, and it would be easy to simply avoid doing so. However, if there was one thing she did understand, it was that at this stage, Janna was clearly more than just sad. She needed to be there more than ever.

"I…" Leni trailed off and glanced downwards. "I don't get it?"

"When do you ever?!" Janna barked. "You don't get that you shouldn't be butting into other people's business! I have my own damn problems, and I certainly don't need you to pretend like you can make them all magically disappear! The best thing you could do is to stay away and keep your dumbass self out of it!"

Something within Leni finally snapped. A large assortment of emotions swirled around within: Anger, sadness, confusion, they all morphed together into a giant conundrum.

Janna was right. She should really keep her dumbass self out of it.

Leni started slowly backing away in the face of Janna's menacing glare. She then hoisted herself up and continued backing away with deliberate pacing.

BAM!

Leni crashed into the locker behind her. She rubbed the back of her head and winced. Of course she bumped into the locker behind her, classic dumb Leni not looking where she was going.

She turned towards where she came from and started slowly pacing away, not once turning back. There was no way in hell Leni could bring herself to face Janna right after the embarrassment that was her pitiful attempt at consoling her.

Leni continued sulking as she aimlessly wandered through the locker room. What was Janna's problem? Was Leni ever really friends with her? Why did she have to be so mean about it?

Leni also had to ask herself though: What did  _she_  ever do anyway? What was the point if all she was doing was making things worse!? What was the point if she couldn't even tell who she knew or was friends with!? What was the point if people didn't want to be happy?

She had failed. She fooled herself in to thinking she could actually make the world a happier place. But alas, she was simply incapable. Even if she knew people were distressed, what good was it if she couldn't do anything about it?

Leni glanced up from the floor to see a long line of lockers, and none other than Janna sitting in front of them with her head buried in her knees. She quickly glanced away and quickly paced in the other direction. Stupid Leni for walking around in circles!

In this moment, nothing could ever go right. That thought did  _not_  make Leni happy.

* * *

Lisa currently could be found out in the sidewalk in a raincoat and hat, carrying several test tubes within her pockets. It was raining outside, and she was crouched down in front of a nice viscous pile of mud, something Lana would totally play in. Lisa took out a test tube, scooped up a sample, then put it back into her pocket. She would later investigate the composition of the mud and compare them to each other and based on where they originated. Maybe not entirely practical, but something about her really enjoyed getting her hands dirty.

She turned her head up too see a familiar figure in the distance, who upon closer inspection appeared to be Leni Loud wearing rainboots, head hung down and an umbrella in one hand.

Strange. Why would Leni be walking home in the rain?

Lisa continued collecting samples, and soon she heard distant footsteps from behind approaching closer, until they were almost directly next to her. Taking that as a cue, Lisa stood up and turned to face her older sister.

"Greetings 2nd eldest sibling!" Lisa adjusted her glasses. "I must inquire as to why you are opting to walk instead of joining the others in our familial vehicle unit. Quite uncharacteristic of you considering the ongoing precipitation."

Leni turned her head up slightly and towards Lisa's direction. "Oh, hi Lisa." She forced a smile and waved her free hand.

"Yes, hello, but my curiosity is still piqued." Lisa dismissively waved her hand downwards.

Leni hung her head downwards again.

Lisa pinched the bridge of her nose, only to realize she got mud on her face. She rubbed the mud off using her sleeve. "Why are you walking home? Whatever happened to riding Vanzilla?"

"You have mud on your face Lisa," Leni responded while shaking her head. "Just leave me alone. Please?"

With that, she started briskly walking away. Lisa put her hand up to her chin and made an audible humming noise as Leni appeared smaller in the distance.

Lisa started chasing after Leni, holding her rain hat in place with her right hand and her other hand shoved in a pocket. Rain splashed slightly as Lisa landed in some puddles with her larger strides, and her socks were definitely drenched at this point.

Soon, she was caught up and directly next to Leni. Her older sister didn't turn to acknowledge Lisa at all.

"You seem to be unusually despondent- er,  _sad_  today. I'd like to know what brought this on."

Leni continued looking down and walking without a word.

"I have reason to believe that your current emotions are the result of the Thermal Distress Detector I have implanted earlier." Lisa adjusted her glasses.

Leni stopped in place and stood still. Seeing this, Lisa stopped walking as well.

"That's the thingy that makes me feel really cold and sad?" Leni muttered.

"Eh, yeah probably. How have your experiences been thus far?" Lisa asked.

"It works," Leni replied.

"…and?"

"People are still sad."

"Precisely," Lisa started. "Despite all your efforts, you still had shortcomings and the result is not proportionate to what is being put in to do so. It is futile to needlessly go out of your way with a false pretense that the world will suddenly become a benevolent utopia. These acts of goodwill are inconsequential, and I fail to see the purpose. I would very much like to see you come to a similar realization.

"In other words, random acts of kindness are a waste of time," Lisa asserted.

It didn't look like it, but Leni was really making an effort to try and understand what Lisa was saying. She thought back to the situation earlier with Janna, and all the failures associated with it. Leni left the class and sought Janna out, only to be met with scorn and disdain. Despite her best efforts, all they served to do was make Leni's life difficult.

"Maybe…" Leni trailed off. Maybe Lisa had a point. Maybe it was better to just ignore everything and keep to herself. Maybe then, at least Leni herself could be happy. Better not think she's more than she really is.

The sound of a door closing was heard from the right, interrupting Leni's train of thought. She turned to see a girl just leaving her house, sulking and seemingly hesitant to leave her porch. Most notably, Leni's 6th sense was tingling. That girl looked  _cold_. Literally and figuratively.

A pang of sadness suddenly hit Leni. Despite what happened to her earlier and what Lisa said, some part of Leni really wanted to go over and talk to the girl. Seeing any kind of dejection was contagious, and this girl in front of Leni was really starting to make Leni feel sorrowful herself.

Leni hesitated as she slowly started walking towards the girl.

"Leni, I believe you are trespassing into a household that isn't ours," Lisa remarked.

By this time, the girl had crept out of the porch and stepped into the rain. Raindrops started catching in her hair, and her light green dress started dampening with spots of raindrops relentlessly smearing on them. Leni continued approaching the girl, slowly and deliberately.

"Hello? Leni! That's the wrong house!" Lisa called out to her.

Leni showed no signs of stopping at all. The girl up ahead looked up and acknowledged Leni with a confused expression on her face as they both approached each other.

Soon, they were both directly in front of each other, just fitting under Leni's umbrella.

"Can I help you?" The girl asked.

Was it really a waste of time? It wasn't a waste of time when she unshackled Luan in the bathroom line. It wasn't a waste of time when she returned the wallet to the girl in the hallway. Heck, all Leni did was listen to Lori and occasionally say a few things in Vanzilla, and Lori left feeling ten times better than she did before!

"You're getting wet," Leni said. She then gestured her umbrella-holding hand towards the girl with a smile. "I think you need this."

No one should ever have to feel sad.

"Why?" The girl asked. "That's your umbrella."

"It's mine, and it's gonna be yours now." Leni grinned.

"But you'll get wet if I take this," the girl replied.

Leni frowned a bit. That's true, she didn't consider that.

"Yeah, that's true… but someone's gonna get wet anyway!" A cheery expression returned to Leni's face with her reply. "I have like 13 other copies of this dress I'm wearing, so this is okay! Or was it 30?" She put a finger up to her chin as she thought about the last part.

Leni gestured her hand holding the umbrella towards the girl again. "Plus, this umbrella looks super cute with your dress! It matches colors!"

For the first time, the gloomy expression the girl had on finally showed signs of shifting upside down.

"Wow, you really think so?" She blushed slightly.

"Totes!"

The girl's hand approached Leni's hand with the umbrella. There was a brief pause before she finally took the umbrella handle within her grip and pulled it closer to herself. Leni felt a warm aura resonating from the girl now, her hands especially tender to the touch.

"Thanks, kind stranger," she said.

"You're welcome!" Leni replied.

The girl finally walked past Leni, this time with an umbrella of her own. The pleasantly temperate tone emanating from the girl became more distant until she left Leni's field of vision, soon to be relegated to memory.

The rain started pattering down on Leni now, with her hair and dress starting to soak little by little. Her dress was sentenced to ruin, but she didn't care. Leni wouldn't have it any other way.

From the distance, Lisa watched with a dumbfounded expression on her face. Leni, who placed great pride in her appearance and worldly possession, who had just described earlier seen with her own eyes the futility of random acts of kindness, and clearly was distraught enough over the whole experience with the Thermal Distress Detector to hear Lisa's point in the first place. Despite all of these factors, Leni still had it in herself to selflessly give away her umbrella at her own expense.

Lisa facepalmed as Leni walked back to the sidewalk where Lisa was waiting.

"Leni, have you heard or understood  _anything_  I said? At all!?"

"Oh, I was all the way over there so I didn't realize," Leni replied with a shrug. "Sorry!"

"No not that!" Lisa stomped her foot on the ground. "I've been trying to tell you how stupid random acts of kindness are, and yet you gave away your only umbrella to some random nobody because 'it matches colors'!"

Leni's gaze softened as she watched Lisa's slight outburst. This just wasn't like her. Lisa Loud, usually so calm and collected, was now exploding with raw emotional power.

"I can't believe it!" Lisa gasped in exasperation. She started pacing around Leni in a circle, making several expressive hand and arm gestures along the way. "I've given several verbal lectures which you completely don't understand! I've spent several hours making an extremely specialized tool good for nothing  _except_ making my point, and yet somehow you're too stupid to get it no matter how I try!"

_"You're too stupid to get it no matter how you try"_

That thought rang in Leni's head repeatedly as soon as those words left Lisa's mouth. Leni always knew that she struggled in some respects. She might sometimes be slow to understand what others are saying, and she might misunderstand phrases or make simple lapses in judgment. However, it was one thing to think it and accept one's shortcomings. It was another experience altogether to hear _it_  from someone else.

A fist formed in Leni's hand. Call her what you will, but Leni did  _not_  like being called stupid. Who was Lisa to say that about her!? Leni might not have fully understood what Lisa said, but from what she did understand, she knew in this moment that Lisa was  _wrong_.

"I can't believe you'd say that about me!" Leni suddenly exploded. "Maybe I'm not as smart as you, but I definitely don't have to be to know that you're totally wrong!"

"I most definitely am not! As I was saying-"

"You are!" Leni interrupted as she started pacing around Lisa. "You keep saying I'm trying to save the world, but I don't! I never cared about that! I just want to make people happy! Pick up wallets, talk to them, listen to their problems, sometimes people don't, like, want your help, but that doesn't matter! At least I tried, and if someone is happy because of it, great! Is that a waste of time to you Lisa!? Why do you have to get something in return to be worth your while!? Maybe I'm not very smart, but I'd rather be stupid than be a cold and heartless jerk!"

Leni was panting by the end of that. Her blood, which was boiling just a few seconds prior, was now slowly simmering down as her rant came to a close.

Lisa stared with widened eyes and dropped jaws. She had never seen Leni rant as passionately as she did just now. Hell, Leni never struck her as someone that could have this amount of thought about anything at all! Normally, Lisa would tell herself to not be too concerned with inane trivialities like being called names, but some part of her was really stricken by the last part.

The more time passed, the more Leni calmed down, and the greater the subsequent realization was about just what Leni said in that moment.

_"I'd rather be stupid than be a cold and heartless jerk!"_

Cold and heartless jerk. Leni had just spent all this time talking about her feelings on being called stupid, and yet she found it within herself to call Lisa something equally as offensive. How was she any better than Lisa if she were to stoop to her level and call her names as well?

Leni turned towards the direction she was originally walking towards and started running. Nothing else mattered right now. She could only keep running directly in the face of mother nature splattering aquatic hell upon her, head hung down, rainboots splashing into puddles and not a single care for ruining anything she was wearing.

She had messed up again, and she wanted nothing more than to forget it and be away from it all. No matter how far or how fast she ran however, it seemed she could never truly escape from her fallible nature catching up to her.

Lisa watched from the distance as Leni became a smaller figure, eventually becoming indistinguishable from the other objects in the distance.

_"I'd rather be stupid than be a cold and heartless jerk!"_

It didn't make sense to dwell on these things. Hell, that's one of the first things she tried to tell Leni when she first came into Lisa's room! Yet even knowing that philosophy all too well, she was somehow finding it incredibly difficult to adhere to her own statement.

Deep down, she didn't want to be a cold and heartless jerk. She didn't think of herself as one, and the fact that Leni said it at all, even if it was just a spur of the moment depiction of anger, really gave her a lot to think about. It was clear right then that Lisa was the reason why Leni had the outburst she did in the first place. That had to mean something.

Lisa started slowly continuing her walk towards home, lost in thought over the situation that had just occurred. The rain continuously pelted down on Lisa's rainhat as a constant reminder of what had just occurred, and she was left to wallow in her own regret, slowly accumulating every step she took.

Being told she was a heartless jerk was one thing, but nothing hurt more in that moment than the possibility that maybe Leni was right.

* * *

Leni slowly opened the door to her home with a certain amount of care that wasn't usually present. She stepped inside and closed the door behind her, finally free of the relentless onslaught that was the rain.

In front of her, Lori was on the couch absentmindedly texting while watching TV. Lori glanced up to see Leni drenched from just a few seconds ago.

"Why didn't you join us on Vanzilla today? Where's your umbrella?" Lori asked.

"I gave the umbrella away," Leni dismissively said. She took off her boots and started marching up the stairs, rain dripping off her drenched attire onto the steps. Lori's eyes followed Leni with an inquisitive stare as Leni eventually ascended out of her vision.

Upstairs, Leni turned to walk towards her room. Luan could be seen in front of her own room stuck in handcuffs again.

"Hey Leni!" she greeted cheerfully. The cheerful expression became a concerned and downbeat one however when she saw Leni's dress and her dampened hair.

"Oh, I guess you forgot your umbrella," Luan said. "I was gonna show you that I finally figured out how to break free from these handcuffs, but you should go take care of that first."

Leni forced a smile. "That's great Luan," she said.

She left without another word, leaving Luan to gaze at Leni walking into the room and shutting the rest of the world out.

Leni walked towards the shared closet and quickly changed her clothes, throwing her old dress tainted with the rain off to the side. A fresh new set came on, but they didn't come with a fresh new self. Leni turned to walk towards the door, and her wet hair and the slightly wet trail she left behind served as grim reminders of what she had done earlier.

Out into the hall and down the stairs, Leni saw Lori now watching Operation: Dessert Storm on TV. Leni observed from the bottom steps.

_"And now, the winner is… Jennifer!"_

An artificial applause could be heard from the screen, and Lori herself was bouncing in excitement. Leni slightly grinned at this positive atmosphere in front of her.

She approached the couch and sat next to Lori, who instinctively scooched over to make room.

"Did you see that Leni? Jenn won the whole thing! I knew she could do it! Her cupcakes look oh so sublime…" Lori said with a dreamy tone. She put her hand together and had dreamy eyes to match.

"Oh, that's totes great!" Leni responded, a slight upbeat demeanor returning before dissipating again. "Lori, there's something I wanna talk with you about again."

Lori reached for the remote, turned the TV off, then faced Leni. "The floor is yours." She gestured an arm over in Leni's direction.

"I…" Leni put a finger up to her chin.  _"Come on Leni, think! You can say it!"_

"I did some really mean things today," she finally said.

"What did you do?" Lori asked.

Leni shifted in her seat for a few seconds, unable to figure out how exactly to respond. "Someone hurt my feelings, but I hurt their feelings too. It makes everyone feel all sad, and I don't want that."

"How did this happen?

"Well…" Leni carefully considered her words. "This girl was trying to help me get something, but I just wasn't getting it so she got mad and called me stupid. I got really mad and said that 'I'll take that any day over being a cold and heartless jerk'. I wasn't thinking that time, and after I said those terrible things, I realized so I ran home."

"I see…" Lori hummed to herself.

"I really want others to feel warm and fuzzy inside, but sometimes I can't! Sometimes, I get really mad! I don't want to be mad!" Leni pouted.

"Leni." Lori put a hand on Leni's shoulder, the tenderness of her warmth contrasting the colder skin from exposure to the rain earlier. "Sometimes, your emotions get the best of you. That's completely normal. It's what makes us human. There's nothing to be ashamed about. It wasn't very nice of someone to call you stupid, but you're not entirely wrong for getting mad about it either."

Leni looked up at Lori to meet her gaze.

Lori put her hand down on her lap and maintained her reassuring gaze. "The most important thing is that you try. You might not have had your best moment just now, but there are moments where you're great as well! You helped me earlier by talking through my issues, and I appreciate that with all my heart. I'm sure you'll touch others in similar ways as well. Keep being who you are Leni."

A smile slowly reappeared on Leni's face.

"You really mean that?"

"I literally mean every word," Lori reassured her.

"Aww, thanks Lori, you're the best!" Leni reached in for a hug, which Lori accepted. Lori's warm and comforting body enveloped Leni's contrasting coldness, warming up over time and adding to the positivity that was their embrace.

After several seconds, the duo reluctantly let go of each other and relaxed in their respective places on the couch.

"So, wanna watch Operation: Dessert Storm with me?" Lori asked.

"Totes!" Leni chirped with excitement.

Just then, the door opened, and a certain 4-year-old girl in a muddy rain jacket and rain hat walked inside with her usual monotone expression. Lori paid no mind, simply glancing up to acknowledge her sister and immediately refocusing on turning the TV back on. Leni however wasn't as dismissive. Leni's 6th sense was tingling right now, an ominous chilling sensation coming from the girl just hanging her raincoat at the entrance.

Leni watched as Lisa grabbed her test tubes from the pockets on her jacket and made her way up the stairs. Something was bothering Lisa, and Leni had a pretty good idea of what it was.

"I'll be right back," Leni said as she got up the couch. She made her way towards the stairs and climbed them. Upon reaching the top, she turned right at the hallway, soon finding herself in front of Lisa's room.

Leni gripped the handle and took a deep breath. It was time to make things right.

She turned the doorknob and pushed, the creaking amplified by Leni's slow and deliberate care.

Lisa was standing on a stool at her desk with her various test tubes she collected, a variety of beakers, chemicals and papers strewn across her desk. Her hair was ruffled up and there was a considerable amount of mud still left on the bottom of her pants and hands.

"Hi Lisa," Leni started nervously. She tapped the tip of her index fingers against each other and slightly tilted her head down.

"What could you possibly want from a cold and heartless jerk?" Lisa replied coldly.

Reply coldly she did indeed. Lisa was considerably cold in her tone, her general demeanor, and  _felt_  that way too. A considerably chilly atmosphere emanated from the lady that bestowed upon Leni the ability to detect them.

Leni thought to herself for several seconds, a somewhat discouraged frown on her face. It was going to be difficult to get through to Lisa, especially after she had said what Lisa conveniently reminded her of.

_"The most important thing is that you try"_

Lori's words echoed itself within Leni's mind. That was right. You can't ever help make someone's life better if you don't ever try.

Leni walked closer to the desk to stand behind Lisa doing her experiments. Lisa turned her head slightly to the right before quickly refocusing on her experiments at hand.

"Lisa, I know I'm not super smart, but I know when I mess up. I was so mad when you called me stupid that I wasn't thinking. You're not cold and heartless. You made me a people thermometer thingy, and that was probably, like, super hard to make. Giving and helping each other isn't something cold and heartless jerks do."

Leni reached over and hugged Lisa from behind. The hug was a frigid one, both from Lisa having come out of the rain, and from Lisa's apparent distress being detected by Leni. "I'm sorry I ever said anything bad about you. You're my sister, and I wouldn't trade that for anything!"

Lisa was simply frozen in place. The way Leni was hugging her was constraining Lisa's ability to properly handle the various test tubes and beakers on her table. However, Lisa also felt an internal conflict within herself. No matter how much she told herself and others that she doesn't put stock into inane human emotions, in practice Lisa could be just as emotional as any other. In this moment, Leni was showing a type of love and affection Lisa couldn't understand. How could she still show this unconditional acceptance for her despite what Lisa had done?

"Why are you doing this?" Lisa finally managed to squeak out.

"If someone is happy, then that's all I care about. I really want you to be happy too!" Leni grinned and squeezed tighter.

"If someone is happy, then that's all I care about…" Lisa audibly echoed.

It was that moment when Lisa finally understood. Everything suddenly made sense. Words couldn't possibly describe the feeling, but for something like this, it didn't matter. Sometimes, all that matters is that something feels good, regardless of reason.

"I'll also extend my apologies for my persistence in attempting to instill upon you a viewpoint that in retrospect only serves to alienate and deprive individuals of the joy they deserve. You may be lacking in academic intelligence, but in terms of emotional intelligence, you surpass all others on a level I clearly cannot comprehend. For that, I will applaud you. In other words, I'm sorry and you should keep being who you are."

Leni's eyes glistened with joy as she heard those words. Lisa was now speaking in a tone that was much warmer than usual, and that reflected itself in her warmer aura from Leni's 6th sense.

"Thanks Lisa!" Leni beamed at Lisa's monologue as she finally freed Lisa from her comforting grasp. "Now that I think about it, this thermo-thingy never really helped me." Leni tapped her head a few times to emphasize her point. "When you got home, you were cold but I already knew you were sad. What you said just now was really sweet, and I didn't need this thermo thingy to tell me that you're happy."

Lisa turned to face her older sister. "Perhaps it never served its purpose practically speaking, but it succeeded in being a learning experience. Albeit not the lesson I was intending, but we both walked away with a far better perspective on life."

Leni suddenly gasped. "You  _still_  haven't washed your face? O M Gosh, we totes have to clean it up!" She produced a handkerchief from her pocket.

"I'm fine, no need for-"

Leni started wiping Lisa's face, who squirmed a bit and raised a finger to protest. However, she quickly relaxed and put her finger down. She would let Leni have this moment.

Lisa grinned as Leni continued removing the mud stains from her face, genuine care being put into Leni's tender touch on the 4-year-old's skin. Leni just wanted to help her sister look better.

If that was what made her happy, then maybe Lisa could be happy too.


	9. Virtual Reality Gaming Device (part 1)

"Video game? Check! Gaming goggles! Check! Strong resolve to destroy all that is undead and evil in this world? Check!"

Lincoln Loud gathered together the necessary tools to enjoy an immersive gaming experience unlike any other. This wasn't just your regular console and screen, the type of gaming that would soon unfold would really put Lincoln in the moment.

"On a regular Saturday morning, there's nothing like an exciting gaming session destroying zombies and kicking butt!"

Lincoln snapped the goggles onto his face and started the game. Soon he waltzed out of his room, completely absorbed by the screen covering his entire field of vision. Instead of pressing buttons, he would literally punch, kick, and twerk his way through destroying imaginary hordes of the undead.

"Hi Linky~"

Lincoln jumped back a bit with a slight yelp as he heard that familiar voice right in front of him.

"Heh, hey Lola. What's up?" Lincoln sheepishly grinned.

"Well, I would  _really_  appreciate it if you played fashion photographer with me again!" Lola coyly asked with fluttering eyes.

Lincoln shrugged and gave a reassuring smile. "Sure! Lead the way!"

"Thanks Lincoln!" Lola quickly Lola grabbed onto Lincoln's hand, and Lincoln offered no resistance as he let himself get tugged along into her room. Inside, Lola had a makeshift catwalk set up, which was composed of a long wooden board bridging two stacks of books. Along the border were Lola's stuffed animals, almost as if they were part of an audience.

Lola produced a camera from behind herself and handed it to Lincoln. "Make me look prim and perfect Linky~"

Lincoln grinned and glanced down at his camera now held closer to his face.

"I can always play video games any time, if I can make my sisters happy, then I'm happy too!"

With that, he held the camera up to his face and positioned his finger on the shutter.

"Show me what you got Lola!"

* * *

"Wow, thanks Linky!" Lola reached in for a hug which Lincoln gladly returned.

"No problem Lola! Always happy to help!" Lincoln proclaimed, triumphantly putting his hands on his hips.

He turned to leave the room with Lola waving from behind. Out in the hallway, he turned towards his room.

"That was fun, now to finally go back to kicking butt! Those zombies aren't gonna destroy themselves!"

Lincoln installed the game into his goggles and snapped them onto his face. He thrusted his hips forward as a celebratory gesture for his game's commencement.

Suddenly, the door burst open and Lynn Jr. appeared out of seemingly nowhere. She jumped in the air and tackled her unsuspecting younger brother to the ground. Lincoln struggled and squirmed as Lynn kept him pinned down.

"Onetwothreefourfivesixseveneightnineten woohoo!" Lynn got up and cheered with raised arms. "Lynn Loud is the champion of the world!"

Lincoln gasped for air as he barely pushed himself upright. "A little warning next time?"

"You gotta always be prepared Linc! Geez I thought you would know that by now!" Lynn laughed and playfully punched Lincoln's arm.

"Yea, plenty of room for preparation with gaming goggles on my face."

"Pffft, take those goggles off and come play a real game! Let's go spar!"

Lynn ripped the goggles off of Lincoln's face and threw them on his bed. She reached in for another punch and thrust her fist towards Lincoln, causing him to lurch back slightly. Just as Lynn's fist was about to collide, she paused, retracted her fist, and started laughing.

"Two for flinching!" She punched Lincoln's arm lightly twice. "Race you to the backyard!"

Lynn dashed out of Lincoln's room, leaving Lincoln in his room again.

Lincoln shrugged. "Well, Lynn seems pretty excited, I guess I can entertain her for a little bit."

"Wait up!" Lincoln darted out of the room to chase his older sister.

* * *

"That was fun! Thanks Linc!" Lynn pulled Lincoln closer to herself and hugged his side tightly. Lincoln struggled to breathe within her physically affectionate clutch.

"Yeah no problem," Lincoln squeaked out.

Lynn let go, allowing Lincoln to breathe again.

"I got baseball practice now, catch ya later!" Lynn ran off almost as quickly as she had first appeared in front of Lincoln's room.

Lincoln started dusting himself off of all the dirt and grass accumulated from the sparring session earlier. "Okay,  _now_  I can enjoy a little bit of time to myself."

With slightly sore legs and arms, he walked back into the house, through the kitchen, up the stairs, and made a right turn towards his room. Finally arriving in front of his door, he reached for the doorknob that would be a gateway towards a medium where you can put reality behind and enamor yourself with the wonders of vibrant colors and engaging dialogue.

"Hey Lincoln."

"Aaahhh!" Lincoln gasped and turned around to see Lucy standing behind him holding a notebook and pen in her hands.

"I need someone to be an audience for me so that I can practice my public reading skills. You're good at constructive criticism and have good ideas so I thought I'd ask you," Lucy explained.

"A brother's work is never done," Lincoln sighed.

"Thanks Lincoln."

Lucy started reading her poem and Lincoln listened with as much intent as he possibly could. However, his mind couldn't help but wander slightly.

"I really do care about my siblings, honest! I'd do anything to help them be happy and feel good about themselves! But sometimes, it can be really hard to get time to yourself when you have 10 others to think about."

"Um, who are you talking to?" Lucy asked.

Lincoln turned his head in several directions before he faced Lucy again and scratched his head. "I don't know, it just helps me think. Makes me feel a lot better."

Lucy blankly stared at Lincoln's face for a few seconds, and Lincoln waved his hand with yet another sheepish grin. Eventually, Lucy continued on with her poem, the vivid imagery and creative flow becoming mere muffles in Lincoln's mind.

"What did you think Lincoln?" she eventually asked.

"Huh what?" Lucy's voice startled Lincoln back into reality. "Uhh, sounds good to me! Though I'm kinda out of it right now, maybe read it again to me later?"

"Okay. Thanks Lincoln." With that, Lucy walked back towards her room.

Lincoln turned to enter his room, opened the door, and went inside. His gaming goggles that Lynn threw on the bed earlier still remained, ready to be picked up and fully immerse Lincoln in the experience.

He picked up his goggles with the game still inserted and simply stood admiring the device in his hands.

After waiting several seconds, he finally put the goggles on his face. "Just had to wait a bit to make sure no surprises come from my siblings."

Goggles finally secured and wearer mentally prepared, Lincoln was finally well on his way to destroying imaginary zombies again. He began with yet another thrust his hips and launched himself out of his room. With ample room in the hallway, he was well on his way to punching, kicking, and twerking his way through pixelated depictions of the rotting flesh that just wouldn't die.

He continued his assault for the next several minutes, vibrant with passion and determination to emerge victorious. Surrounded by the screen and physically engaged, Lincoln could feel as though he was  _literally in the game_.

Finally, Lincoln did one final twerk, the last zombie was defeated, and a victory screen appeared in front of Lincoln.

"Yes!" Lincoln cheered as he straightened himself and did a fist pump. "Well, that was fun. I should relax for a bit and read some comics in my underwear."

"If you're done with your exaggerated flicking of your posterior, I'd like to present to you an opportunity that may provide an immersive gaming experience without those obnoxious gestures."

Lincoln flinched with a very similar yelp to what was made a few hours earlier.

"Man, I really need to stop doing that!" said Lincoln. He straightened himself out and regained his composure. He then started taking off his goggles. Removed from the virtual reality, he was greeted with another one of his sisters standing before him with a blank stare aimed at his face.

"Well, what do you need Lisa?" Lincoln asked, a barely noticeable hint of annoyance lingering in his tone.

"Follow me and I'll explain." Lisa trotted over to her lab and Lincoln followed.

"What you are about to witness is a device that stemmed from a desire to reduce second-hand embarrassment over your virtual reality hullabaloo."

"Second-hand embarrassment? Does the twerk on the jerk really look that bad?" Lincoln said out loud.

"That and your narrative dialogue," Lisa muttered to herself as she opened the door.

Unamused, Lincoln followed Lisa inside.

The lab looked the same way it always did, with Lily safely in the crib (or as safe as she can be considering Lisa's experimental antics), machines placed all around the room, and a desk up ahead with books, papers, a laptop, and a peculiar gray cube-shaped machine distinct from the rest. Lisa approached her desk and climbed up her stool. She sat on the desk facing Lincoln while caressing the machine with one hand.

If Lincoln didn't notice the machine before, he  _definitely_ did now with the attention his younger sister was giving to it. The machine was made of a metallic material, with a screen facing Lincoln on one side. The rest of the sides were littered with various button, tiny light bulbs, save for the bottom which wasn't visible, and the top which had a hatch instead.

"This virtual reality gaming device that I have painstakingly crafted over the past several days now is one that will push the limits of your definition of 'virtual reality.' Those primitive 'gaming goggles' of yours emphasize the 'virtual' nature of virtual reality, but what I present today is the first of its kind to focus on the 'reality'."

Lisa pressed a key on the laptop behind her, and a hatch on top of the machine opened up. A folded radar-antenna like part snaked from the machine, supported by a flexible metal cord. The scanner-part unfolded itself and directed itself at Lincoln. In the face of a large antenna, Lincoln nervously stepped back.

"You may ditch the gaming goggles now Lincoln, that primitive technology only serves to alter your visual stimuli and spatial cognition."

Lisa pulled out a piece of paper from her pocket and unfolded it, revealing an illustration

"This gaming device goes beyond simply obstructing your field of vision. This device will scan your physical composition, and by extension your neurology to transport what is essentially a digital copy of yourself into an artificially programmed virtual environment within the machine. Ergo, you will essentially experience this virtual reality as if it was reality itself. You will retain all experiences within the reality as we know it and the 'reality' built within this machine, and you may transport yourself in and out of the machine at will."

"Woah Lisa slow down a bit." Lincoln put both his hands in front of him mimicking a stop signal. "This sounds totally awesome, it really does! But this all sounds too good to be true. What's the catch?" He put his hands on his hips and leaned forward with an inquisitive glare.

"There's no catch, hidden clause, addendum, codicil, whatever terminology may be applicable here. I've laid my purpose out clearly, you can either take it or leave it."

"Well what's in it for you?" Lincoln leaned in closer.

"If you didn't have the memory of a Carassius auratus," Lisa rolled her eyes, "I'm sure many others in this household have shared sentiments of the incessant nature of your virtual reality goggles. This device would serve as a method of displacing your gameplay to an area free of judgment and recursive annoyances."

"Hmm… Normally, I'd be really worried about being another one of Lisa's guinea pigs, but you have to admit, what she's doing sounds  _awesome!_ " Lincoln formed fists in his hand and put them up to chin level, eyes staring longingly in the distance and grinning from ear to ear. "So how do we get started?"

"You'll need this." Lisa threw a device resembling a smartwatch at Lincoln's way. Lincoln's arms jerked a bit, but they completely failed to catch the watch that flew past his shoulder. With the watch landing on the carpet behind him, Lincoln scrambled to pick up the watch and put it on his wrist, all while Lisa simply watched with her usual expression.

"I pray your relative lack of proprioception isn't enough of a hinderance to misplace what you failed to catch, this device is your lifeline to safely communicate with the world outside the box, and as far as I know it's the only way out."

Lincoln, who was fumbling with the watch for the past several seconds, finally succeeded in securing the strap on his wrist. "Got it, keep the watch on at all times!"

"Okay, here we go." Lisa turned towards her laptop and typed a few quick strokes. Within a few seconds, the machine started whirring, the radar antenna started glowing at the tip, then finally started gathering a purplish energy similar to the Death Star when it's about to blow a planet up. Eventually, the collected energy burst, firing at Lincoln as he was surrounded by a purplish intangible  _thing_.

Lincoln gasped and his eyes widened as he tilted his head down to look at his hands. Both of them were starting to disintegrate into a pixelated mess, and then to nothingness, starting from the fingertips and slowly making its way down his arms.

As the last remains of his physical form threatened to disappear, a twinge of sudden fear struck him. Lincoln glanced up at Lisa with pleading eyes, left ignored as his sister continued working on the laptop. In that moment, Lincoln became painfully aware of the possibility that he might never come back to the world as he knew it, or even worse, not make it anywhere and just disappearing on the spot. Dead because he landed in the pitfall that was being Lisa's guinea pig for the thousandth time despite all his experiences screaming at him to avoid at all costs.

I guess that's just how much family means to Lincoln.

Lincoln finally disappeared, the whirring of the machine slowed down, and the glow on the antennae slowly faded away. The antennae folded itself up and snaked back into the box, with the hatch on top finally sealing itself shut. Lincoln's transportation into unknown territory was locked in.

Lisa turned back towards the device, then towards the area Lincoln would have been in if he were still around. She then turned back and focused her attention on the screen, opening up windows and typing lines with incredible speed.

A growling noise punctured through the ambient noise of keys clacking and mice frantically clicking. Lisa paused and glanced down at the source of her noise below. She reached to the left side of her desk seemingly fetching something that was supposed to be there. Alas, she patted her hands in an arbitrary area a few times before retracting her hand and returning to her typing.

"Dang it, I should have asked him to make me some PB&Js," she sighed.

* * *

A dark, musty and moist hallway was all Lincoln saw in all directions. His head spun around wildly as he pieced together these unfamiliar stimuli surrounding him. He continued doing so for a few seconds, somehow expecting in his mind to see or learn anything new about this uncharted territory. Alas, all he saw were stone bricks, dripping water, moss, and emptiness for miles upon miles. Something about this all seemed familiar to him however…

Lincoln started timidly pacing through the corridor, with his index fingers tapping against each other near his chest, and his head constantly swiveling in all directions. His lips were sealed shut where they would normally narrate, this unfamiliar atmosphere instilling a sense of unease into Lincoln unlike any other.

Suddenly, a static noise started resonating through the hallway, a slight echo rebounding at him. Lincoln jumped a bit at the noise with a yelp. Beads of sweat immediately formed on his forehead, and his whole body joined in on his head's constant swiveling motion as he stopped advancing through the hall.

"bszhglksejfoaiesfjlincoln? Lincoln? Do you read me?"

Huh?

"Lincoln! If you hear me, give any kind of verbal response at all! Lincoln!"

He turned down to his right arm and found a flashing watch-like device attached to his wrist.

Was that where the sound was coming from?

"Uh, yeah?"

Lincoln heard an audible 'phew' from the device. "Great, Lincoln listen up. You probably have a lot of questions you want to ask right now," she said.

You probably imagined Lincoln immediately barraging Lisa with a flurry of questions just now, something like "Of course I have a lot of questions! Where am I!? What is any of this!? Anything!". If not those specific questions, then at least a certain amount of annoyance from him. Lincoln however was just _stunned_. He was certainly confused, but his confusion ran deeper than being unaware of his surroundings.

Several seconds passed until Lincoln finally managed to muster up a question: "What?"

"Remember, you're inside a machine! This is virtual reality! I painstakingly programmed the same game you play on your goggles into this machine for  _your sake_!"

Lincoln started thinking to himself. This sounded kinda familiar…

"Okay, first timer, I figured this was a possibility," the voice from the watch sighed. "I need you to follow my directions."

Uh, okay.

"We'll perform a simple respiratory routine. When I tell you to inhale or exhale, you do as instructed. Capiche?"

"Uh, okay," Lincoln said out loud this time.

"Inhale through the nose…"

Lincoln did as instructed.

"And out the mouth…"

A somewhat more audible exhaling noise was made as Lincoln continued following instructions.

"Inhale… exhale… inhale… exhale…"

Lincoln didn't realize it until now, but he had been tensing up since he had just entered this realm. The knot in his stomach slowly unraveled as he performed the breathing exercises and listened to the monotonous commands.

"Lisa?" Lincoln asked to himself.

"That is my given name, yes," Lisa replied. "A few more minutes and your recollection of vital memories and the situation you are currently involved in will likely be recovered. Continue respiratory exercises and listen carefully."

"Okay." Lincoln was starting to remember. The watch on his wrist was familiar now. He wasn't supposed to lose it.

"You are in the virtual reality gaming device I constructed. None of this around you is real. It's purposely designed to feel as realistic as possible."

Lincoln took timid small steps over to a wall and pushed his palm onto the mossy surface. Almost immediately, he jumped back with an expression of disgust, shook his hand, then wiped it on his pants.

"Ewwww, why am I here?" Lincoln asked.

"I put you here so you can play the games you play on your gaming goggles with an augmented sense of realism and engagement, while being put away from public view."

"Yeah, almost too realistic even," Lincoln commented.

"I see your narrative dialogue has returned."

"Oh right, that's another reason why you put me here." Lincoln remembered.

"Excellent, you are well on your way to being your average case scenario I've grown familiar with."

"Right, so what do I do?"

Almost as if on cue, a digital pixelated play button floated up from below the ground, blocking off most of the hallway.

"If the virtual reality gaming device is functioning correctly as of right now, a giant floating play button appear in the middle of the corridor."

Lincoln had already approached the button as Lisa started explaining.

"All one has to do is to simply approach it and touch it as if it were actually a button. That should initiate the start of the game."

Lincoln pressed the button.

"Now, I should probably explain the controls before you-"

"AAAAAAAHHHHHH!"

Suddenly in front of Lincoln, several zombies manifested themselves into existence. There was no floating animation like the play button, Lincoln simply pressed 'play' and they just  _appeared_. They were fairly far, maybe 10 feet away or so, but Lincoln's veins froze as he watched the undead creep closer and closer.

Lisa sighed audibly. "A slight mishap. Never mind what I was about to explain, I implore you to play as if you were playing with your goggles."

"What?"

Normally, Lincoln would excitedly rush into battle and get to work with the twerk. However, there was something about the realism of the simulator that increased the gravity of the situation. It was one thing to see a bunch of pixelated monsters on goggles. Seeing photorealistic zombies and literally being in the environment where these hyper-realistic zombies seriously looked like they were gonna eat your brains was on another magnitude altogether.

"Well, well what are you waiting for?" Lisa demanded.

Lincoln glanced down at the watch on his wrist where Lisa's voice was heard. There are a bunch of zombies coming over my way and they're about to eat my freaking brains alive, do you think I know what I'm supposed to do?!

Well…

He glanced back up towards the zombies ahead, inching closer and closer by the second. What  _was_  he waiting for?

The fright in Lincoln's eyes eventually turned to one of focus and determination. He formed fists in both his hands and put his right foot forward.

They may not look like it, but they were just as real as the zombies in Lincoln's gaming goggles. In other words, they were total figments of Lisa's machine. Lincoln had nothing to worry about.

With a battle cry, Lincoln charged at the first zombie he saw, straight in front of him about 10 feet away. He leaned back for a punch and thrust forward, fist colliding with the fleshy abdomen of the undead.

The zombie was pushed back by the force of Lincoln's punch. However, the zombie didn't fall to the floor or skid and recoil as one would expect. Instead, the zombie slowly disappeared, disintegrating into a pixelated mess and blowing away into nothingness.

Lincoln stood frozen in place with widened eyes and his fist still in front of him. He knew he wasn't the most physically capable. There was no way his weak punch could have possibly had enough force to push a zombie back and blow them up into a million pieces.

Another zombie to the northwest! Lincoln lifted a leg and kicked the zombie in the gut. The zombie flew a few feet upwards and disintegrated into pixelated nothingness.

Lincoln was again stunned in place with his leg still lifted. This sudden surge in strength he had was not normal by any means.

Soon, more zombies started to surround Lincoln, and Lincoln put all his strength and motivation into kicking, punching, twerking, and hip thrusting the zombies out of existence. One by the one, the zombies would get blown up into digital oblivion and Lincoln would advance through the hallway.

None of this was real, yet it felt so real at the same time. Lincoln exhibited a surge in strength and stamina that he could never possibly have in real life. Yet here he was, blowing up hordes of the undead that he can see and feel and  _experience_  as if they were nothing.

The number of zombies in the corridor were dwindling, and Lincoln mercilessly destroyed them on sight. This strength that he felt was  _empowering_. He felt the best he ever did in the longest time. Lincoln, normally physically feeble and not able to handle the feats Lynn Loud Jr. considered child's play. This was an experience that could only happen within the confines of an ideal constructed simulation of a tangible reality, and boy did it deliver.

With one final twerk, Lincoln thrust his rear end into the zombie's, *ahem*, frontal end, and he felt a force push the zombie away a foot before being the last to join the ranks of the digital dead.

"Yes!" Lincoln cheered and raised his arms. No matter how a game is played, the sense of satisfaction gained from beating a game was one that remained the same everywhere.

"Watch out!"

Huh?

Suddenly, Lincoln felt a ripping sensation on his head, and he could have sworn a part of his head was torn off just now. Lincoln turned to see one last zombie he had completely missed directly behind him, holding a piece of his head, the white hair unmistakable as something other than his own.

Lincoln himself soon felt as though he was disintegrating into a pixelated oblivion, the zombie still maintaining possession of the top half of his head as Lincoln finally disappeared.

Soon, Lincoln found himself lying on the floor in the same dank and musty corridor that he was in earlier. There were no zombies or buttons to speak of anywhere in sight.

"Lincoln! Lincoln! Do you copy!?" Lisa's voice could be heard from the watch.

"Whaaa…"

"Yes!" Lisa audibly exhaled a breath of relief. "I could say thank goodness, but we both know the success behind creating a fully functional facsimile of a video game is thanks to my deliberation and ability to properly construct what I set my mind to."

"Did I… respawn?" Lincoln asked. He lifted his upper body up and scratched his head.

"In layman's terms, yes, you respawned," Lisa quickly returned to her neutral tone.

Lincoln stood up, then paused. He reached his hand up to the back of his head again, only to feel, well, the back of his head.

Strange how that happened. Lincoln felt basically no pain whatsoever when half of his head was torn off, merely the sensation and awareness that it had happened. He should have just died right then and there, but instead he respawned. Didn't that make him basically immortal?

"If you're done standing around like a braindead nincompoop, I should transport you out of the game now," Lisa interrupted.

"Oh, okay then," Lincoln responded. He forced a grin on his face.

Lincoln glanced down at his watch, which was starting to glow. It produced a familiar but somewhat different whirring sound similar to the sound heard when Lincoln was first transported inside the machine. Slowly, Lincoln's right arm tingled as he disintegrated into a pixelated mess, then into nothingness, starting from his wrist and extending further down his arm and towards his fingertips.

He turned his head upwards and was suddenly struck with a familiar fear from before. The feeling of slowly disappearing into nothingness than reappearing again would surely freak any sane person out. To further add to that however, not only was Lincoln himself disappearing, the hallway around him was disintegrating as well. The stone brick, the moss, everything around Lincoln was disappearing. This wasn't just Lincoln getting transported anymore. This was the world as he knew it ceasing to exist.

The last of anything tangible gone without a trace, Lincoln closed his eyes and let himself be consumed by the dazzling enigma.

* * *

Lincoln opened his eyes and found himself within the familiarity of Lisa's lab. The stone brick and mossy walls were replaced with green wallpaper, various furniture such as beds and desks, and a certain child prodigy that had caused the dramatic shift in atmosphere in the first place.

"Lincoln! You're back!" Lisa squealed.

"Heh, yes I am. It's good to be back," Lincoln responded.

_"Was it really though?"_

Lisa hopped off her stool, ran over to Lincoln and hugged his legs. Lincoln leaned his head forward and reached down to return to the hug to Lisa.

The child prodigy eventually released Lincoln from her embrace. "Is everything in order Lincoln? No missing parts, possible defects in your bodily functions?"

"No, I'm okay," Lincoln sighed.

He wasn't  _entirely_  okay however. A part of him was screaming to stay for longer. To further immerse himself in this new gaming experience he's never had before. To be physically capable and essentially immortal as he felt in the game. To feel the sense of empowerment he felt within.

Lisa shrugged. "I'll take your word for it but report back if you notice any anomalies. I'll extend my gratitude for helping test my latest creation. I won't make any promises on when, but in due time you should have free reign to play whatever game whenever it's most convenient."

Lincoln perked up and a huge rush of relief washed over Lincoln as he heard Lisa's light claim. "Really? That'd be awesome!"

"Once again, I simply ask that you cease your suggestive actions in regards to your gameplay with the goggles. I've constructed this gaming device  _specifically_  to reduce second-hand embarrassment." Lisa adjusted her glasses. "Furthermore, I request that you not interact with this device unless otherwise instructed or given explicit permission, this gaming device is still in its beta stages and I'd prefer for progress to be as controlled and stable as possible."

"You got it! Thanks Lisa, you're the best!"

Lisa turned her back to Lincoln and started working on the computer. Lincoln turned for the door and approached it to leave.

Just out the hallway before he closed the door, he poked his head in through the crack and took a glimpse at the gray cubical box on top of Lisa's desk. So innocuous outside, yet so alluring and engrossing. The further Lincoln strayed from the box, the more of a magnetic pull he felt to come back.

Lincoln shook his head and turned to enter his room.

As he opened the door, Lincoln saw Lynn up ahead, seemingly awaiting Lincoln with her fighting stance. She immediately jumped upwards to tackle Lincoln.

In self-defense, Lincoln raised a fist and thrust it towards his older sister. However, Lincoln's punch was no match for Lynn, and she pinned Lincoln to the ground, just the same as before.

Lynn laughed as Lincoln struggled under her weight, lifting herself up after a few seconds. She extended a hand out to Lincoln, who accepted it. With that, she pulled Lincoln upright.

"Hah, gee Lincoln, you really gotta get it into your head! Always be prepared!"

Lincoln nervously laughed and scratched the back of his head. "Yeah, heh. I really should see this coming by now."

"You wanna help me practice for kickboxing?" Lynn asked.

Lincoln pinched the bottom of his chin as he considered what Lynn said. "Alright, but take it easy, we've already done exercise once today."

"Aww thanks, you're the best!" Lynn reached in and squeezed Lincoln's side tightly for a sideways embrace.

"No problem," Lincoln managed to squeak out.

Lynn let go and dashed down the stairs again, leaving a somewhat dazed Lincoln in the room. He continued standing for a few more seconds contemplating what had just occurred. Here, his attempt at defending himself was feeble at best. He didn't feel nearly as powerful or in control as he did in the game. What more, Lincoln really did love his sisters, but sometimes they could really pile it on. His whole day was basically spent helping his siblings, save for the 5 minutes or so he got to himself with the goggles earlier. No doubt many more would come to him later.

Lincoln finally sauntered out the room to meet Lynn outside. Just out the room, he turned left towards Lisa and Lily's room once more. The door was now closed, but Lincoln knew just what was behind it. The gaming device sat on Lisa's desk, waiting to be played and experienced.

"Man, that game device Lisa made was awesome! I  _really_  wanna go back in there and play again."

Lincoln faced forward and continued walking along, pushing the thought out of his head. As he turned left towards the stairs however, he caught himself glancing towards the direction of Lisa's lab once more.

He just  _had_  to get back into the machine again. It was going to happen. For now, he just had to endure a wait that would surely feel like an eternity. Another one of his sisters awaited him.

To be continued...


	10. Virtual reality Gaming Device (part 2)

"On a regular Sunday morning, there's nothing like an exciting gaming session destroying zombies and kicking butt!" Lincoln triumphantly said to himself.

"Adorbs! Now to get the right colors…"

"That is to say, I'd be having an awesome time right now if I didn't have to dress up like, uh, this," Lincoln sighed dejectedly.

Lincoln's lament fell on deaf ears as he currently modeled for Leni's fashion design in her room. Instead of his usual orange polo shirt and jeans, he wore a yellow summer dress that fit his waist like a glove, opening up like sunflower petals that whirled with the wind and finished off in a black stripe that accentuated his femininity. All in all, Lincoln looked like someone had put a white dandelion over a sunflower.

"Couldn't you do this yourself Leni?" Lincoln rolled his eyes as he asked his older sister.

"But then who would dress me up?" Leni responded.

"Never mind…" Lincoln sighed.

She reached for a black sun hat next to her, walked up to Lincoln and dropped the hat on his head. The hat floated down and slightly drooped on the edges as it landed snugly on Lincoln's head without a hitch.

"Cute! You look like one of those flying striped thingies!" Leni chirped.

"You mean bees?"

Leni shook her head. "That's a word, not a letter."

Just then, Lori opened the door to the room while swiping away at her phone in the other hand. Right as she walked into the room, she saw Lincoln dressed up in the middle while Leni looked and giggled with a pile of clothes on her bed.

"Aahhh Lincoln what a cutie!" Lori squealed.

Before Lincoln could react, Lori held her phone up and snapped a picture. Lincoln covered himself up as best he could, but to no avail.

"I am literally sending this to Bobby right now!"

"Lori, please don't-"

"And done!" Lori grinned.

"…send that," Lincoln finished.

He glared at Lori as he took the sun hat on his head and threw it like a frisbee at Leni.

"Relax Lincoln, Bobby definitely wouldn't make fun of you and no one else ever has to see it! I'll even ask him to not send it to anyone else right now." Lori started tapping away on her phone.

Almost as if on cue, Lincoln's phone buzzed in his pocket. He took it out to check it and was greeted with a text from Ronnie Anne.

"Hey Lame-O, nice dress you got there," Lincoln read out loud. "Seems fitting for someone like you. Wink."

Lincoln squeezed his phone tightly, and it almost threatened to crack under his grip. He pushed past Lori and stormed out the door into the hallway.

Lori hurried out her room to follow Lincoln. Out in the hall, Lori saw Luan, who held a camera near her face ready to take a picture.

"Why are you wearing that Linc? There are so many questions I need you to ad _dress_!" Luan laughed to herself.

Lori smacked the camera out of Luan's hand as she passed her. "Not now Luan!" She yelled after her.

Lincoln was just in front of his room when Lori caught up to him. She grabbed his shoulder, causing Lincoln to turn around and face his older sister.

"Lincoln I'm sorry! I literally should have asked you before I took the pic and sent it to Bobby. I texted both Bobby and Ronnie Anne saying not to send them to anyone else. See?"

Lori held her phone screen in front of Lincoln. Indeed, the screen did show a group message between Lori and the Santiagos, with Lori's text saying what she had claimed to say.

"That doesn't matter!" Lincoln retorted. "You did what you did, and if you didn't do damage control just a little bit faster, who knows where this picture could have gone? What if I didn't even want Bobby or Ronnie Anne to see it!?"

Before Lori could respond, Lincoln turned, entered his room, and slammed the door.

Inside the converted closet, Lincoln threw off the sundress that Leni put on him. "I didn't even really want to dress up for Leni, but I decide to give my siblings a little bit of my own time, and I get slapped in the face with embarrassing photos sent to other people!" He ranted to himself as he pulled on his jeans.

"I wish I could just pretend this never happened! If I had just any ounce of courage in me at all to just say 'no" to Leni, then I wouldn't be in this situation in the first place!" Lincoln threw his orange polo shirt on himself as he continued ranting.

Lincoln plopped himself down on his bed with arms and legs sprawled out. His legs and arms twitched and shifted ever so slightly as he lay still on the bed. He stared at the ceiling and observed the absolutely featureless monotony of the ceiling, being nothing but a single painted color and a light that perpetually illuminated the room and glared at his face. He covered his eyes with his right hand and sighed over what had just occurred.

Eventually, Lincoln hoisted himself up from the bed and stretched. He then looked around the desk for his gaming goggles, soon finding them shoved in a corner.

"Maybe a gaming session will cheer me up," Lincoln said to himself. He snapped the goggles onto his face and powered them on. The starting menu for Zombie Busters loaded up, with a giant green start button floating in the middle of the hallway.

With the gaming goggles still on his face, he turned his head towards the left where Lisa and Lily's room would be. He took the goggles off, revealing a longing gaze at something he felt he was missing.

Lincoln lightly rested his goggles on the desk next to him and slipped out the door. Out in the hall, he immediately turned left and reached for the doorknob. However, on the doorknob, there was a sticky note pasted onto it. He picked it to read it.

"To Lincoln: I've observed your temptation for the past day now, and I must implore you to reconsider your actions," Lincoln read out loud.

He shrugged and stuffed the sticky note in his pocket. He slowly turned the doorknob left until it stopped turning, then lightly pushed it open ajar, never letting go of the knob.

Lincoln poked his head in through the crack and surveyed the room. Not a single child was seen anywhere in sight, whether it be the prodigious extraordinaire that was his sister, or the even younger sister that would soon grow to be something beyond a blank slate.

With that, Lincoln slipped the rest of his body through the crack and slowly shut the door, careful not to make a sound. A click was heard, and Lincoln exhaled a sigh of relief.

There it was, right ahead of Lincoln. Conveniently resting on top of Lisa's desk was the Virtual Reality Gaming Device.

Like a child drawn to candy, Lincoln's eyes were magnetized onto the gray cube ahead of him. He took another cautionary look to his right and left before he started tiptoeing towards the device.

Soon right in front of the device, Lincoln could swear he was hearing the palpitation of his heart. On top of the device was a yellow sticky note with a bunch of scrawls written over it. Lincoln picked it up with slightly trembling hands.

"Again, I must reiterate that I strongly advise against operating the virtual reality gaming simulator without sufficient supervision or permission. Turn and walk away now."

"Man, Lisa is good!" Lincoln thought out loud as he shoved the note in his pocket. "Maybe she has a point though, she was pretty serious about this earlier too."

Lincoln glanced down at the device in front of him. Externally, it was just a gray box with a bunch of buttons and lights sprinkled onto it. Internally however, it was everything one could ever imagine or need. Within the device was a blank slate, ready to be filled in to your heart's content, made tangible and realistic beyond your wildest imagination. This device didn't harbor a simulation, a placeholder, or virtuosity of any kind. This device created a world envisioned exactly how one would want it, as if it were reality of its own. That device could  _be_  someone's world.

After contemplating for several seconds, Lincoln nervously stepped over to the laptop nearby. He slowly opened it, and the screen lit up. However, on the screen was a yellow sticky note obscuring part of the view. Lincoln picked it up and held it closer to himself to read it.

"This is your last chance to change your mind. Turn away now!"

Lincoln put the note in his other pocket and shrugged as he read the instructions on the screen. "Step one: The most important step is to first equip the wrist-bound communication device. It's the only way out, so it is paramount that you take extra care in conforming it securely strapped to your radiocarpal joint."

"Okay," he said to himself as he scanned the desk.

"Ahah!" Hiding behind a few books was the, uh, let's just call it a watch. Lincoln picked the watch up and strapped it into his wrist. He gave a light tug on the band to make sure it was secure, exactly as instructed.

"Step two: To operate the Virtual Reality Gaming Device, simply type in the name of said recreational activity you would like to undertake. The options are listed below. Press enter to confirm."

Lincoln typed in a game he had played time and time again and pressed enter.

Nearby, the Virtual Reality Gaming Device started whirring again as the hatch opened up on the top. A metal cord with a folded-up radar antenna snaked out of the opening. The antennae unfolded itself, pointed itself at Lincoln, and started glowing with a familiar purplish energy.

"Step three: Enjoy. No need to overcomplicate things, especially since Lincoln's going to use it."

"Gee thanks, I see you put a lot of faith in me Lisa," Lincoln huffed as he rolled his eyes.

Eventually, a purple beam fired from the antennae, and Lincoln was surrounded by the same aura he found himself in a day earlier. Slowly, Lincoln was consumed by the energy as his arms disappeared first, coiling from tangibility into a thread of numbers and pixels through the antennae. He felt a light tingling sensation as more and more of his body disappeared. This was his third time getting transported in or out of the machine, and he still found himself freezing up and panicking each time as he experienced a severed connection to a world he knew and depended on.

Soon enough, Lincoln was gone and all traces of his physical form were nowhere to be seen.

* * *

_Drip. Drip. Drip._

"Ugh…"

Another drop of water landed on his forehead. Lincoln found himself lying on his back, arms and legs sprawled out on the dank hallway floor. The drops of water continued to assault Lincoln ever so slightly, annoying him just enough to sit upright and rub his eyes. Lincoln stretched and looked ahead where he was sitting, only to see a familiar endless void: nothing but stone bricks and moss for miles.

Lincoln scratched his head as he stood upright. He stretched and twisted his body, reorienting himself in his regular upright position.

Suddenly, he gasped as he swiveled his entire body in the opposite direction of where he was facing. There, smack in the middle of the hallway, was a giant floating "play" button.

If there's anything Lincoln learned from all his years of gaming, pressing the "play" button was the gateway to hours of entertainment.

Remaining true to his gaming instincts, Lincoln slowly walked up to the button until he was directly in front of it. He put an index finger in front of him and slowly pushed it forward. He hesitated just as his finger was about to make contact. His finger jerked back and his arms retracted.

Something about this all seemed familiar.

Lincoln stood in front of the play button stunned for several seconds as he scoured his mind for just  _what was missing._ He's definitely been in this situation before, he knew exactly how to play, yet he felt he was forgetting something really important to himself.

Eventually, Lincoln squeezed his eyes shut and shook his head. He jabbed his fingers forward and pressed the button.

Immediately, the button disappeared, and a whole army of zombies manifested themselves in front of Lincoln. They all groaned in unison as they slowly approached Lincoln.

Fists balled, right foot forward, and determination in his eyes, Lincoln faced the monsters with a triumphant grin. Memories weren't important right now. What was important was kicking zombie ass and making it out alive.

With that, he yelled out a battle cry and jumped up towards the nearest zombie. Mid-air, he put a foot out in front of him, and it collided with a zombie's head. The zombie was knocked down from the impact, making a loud thud as it hit the floor. Immediately following that, the zombie transformed into a bunch of particles and numbers, floated up towards the ceiling, and soon nothing.

Lincoln laughed almost maniacally as he continued kicking, punching, and twerking his way through the horde. With this much power at his disposal, he could never get bored of exercising it. So many cool moves he could do, an infinite supply of punching bags at his disposal, and no risk of failure whatsoever. This was a one-of-a-kind experience, and he wouldn't have it any other way.

* * *

Lisa opened the door to the house and walked inside. She had a noticeable char on the right side of her face and glasses and was still wearing a lab coat. Lori followed behind her carrying a purse while whistling and twirling the car keys on her index finger.

"Now remember Lisa, trig homework by tonight," Lori reminded her. She reached into her purse, pulled out a stack of papers, and passed them to her younger sister.

Lisa reached behind herself to accept the papers, then brought them in front of her. She started flipping through the paper as she started walking up the stairs. "Affirmative. I'll have the assignment completed at my earliest convenience."

"By tonight~!"

Lisa made it up to the top and turned right towards her room. When she arrived in front of her room and she reached for the doorknob, she paused.

The sticky note she placed there was missing.

Lisa raised an eyebrow. Odd, but anyone could have moved it, perhaps caught in a fight with the twins. She opened the door and walked inside.

"AHHHHH!"

Lisa gasped as she stumbled and dropped the stack of homework, landing face first on the carpet floor.

"Oh, it's you!" A nervous laughter followed.

Lisa pushed herself upright and started collecting the homework, taking a glance at where the scream came from. Lincoln was leaning back on the desk, hands gripped to the edge and feet pushing him back.

"Here, I'll help with that," Lincoln said as he approached Lisa.

"No no, I have this situation under control," Lisa insisted.

"Heh, okay, I'll just… play with Lily! Who's a good girl?" Lincoln cooed.

Lisa glanced up at the crib Lincoln was approaching.

"Lincoln, you do realize our youngest sibling isn't present in the room?"

"Huh?" Lincoln did a double take on the crib he was talking towards. "Oh, yeah, well I guess I'd better get going then, because that's what I came here for." He flashed the widest grin he could possibly muster as he slowly tiptoed his way towards the door.

"Hold it!" Lisa grabbed onto the bottom of Lincoln's shirt and tugged at it, preventing Lincoln from leaving.

"What? What did I do?" Lincoln said, a hint of uneasiness in his voice.

"I would appreciate an explicit reasoning as to why you find yourself situated in my residential dwelling." Lisa adjusted her glasses as she dragged Lincoln closer to her desk.

"Well, uh, I came to see Lily, but like you said she's not here now, so I'd  _really_  appreciate it if you could let me go," Lincoln responded. He resisted a little himself, but not enough to prevent himself from being dragged by his younger sister.

Lisa arrived just in front of her desk and hopped on the stool, still holding onto Lincoln's shirt. She took a look at the gaming device, then the laptop, before turning back at Lincoln and letting go. Lincoln stumbled backwards a bit slightly, but quickly reoriented himself.

"You may recall a certain number of adhesive cellulose pulp compressions placed in locations conveniently visible to one's visual field, do you not?" Lisa inquired.

"No. I mean yes! Yes I do." Lincoln did an exaggerated nod. "You're talking about the sticky notes, right?"

Lisa squinted at Lincoln's direction. "Have you adhered to the statements imprinted on said 'sticky notes'?" Lisa made quotation marks for emphasis.

"Well…" Lincoln's eyes glanced away from Lisa. "I… was going to. Yeah." Lincoln did more exaggerated nodding. "Man, I didn't listen the first time or the second time, but the third time I finally realized what you said was  _pretty_  important, so I decided to just play with Lily instead." He started tapping his index fingers against each other and stared down at them as if they were suddenly the most interesting things in the entire world.

Lisa stared as Lincoln continued to pantomime and shifted tones.

"Hmm…" Lisa rubbed her chin as she thought to herself. "Perhaps the simulation from yesterday is having an adverse effect on your cognitive reasoning skills. In any case, as long as directions are followed and irreparable damage isn't caused, then we can resume as we were. "

Lincoln put his arms behind his back. "Heh, yeah, that would be pretty bad," Lincoln responded with an especially toothy grin. "I'd better get going now."

Lincoln turned and made a mad dash for the door while Lisa watched from behind. Out in the hall, he turned right towards his room, pushed the door open, then slammed it shut. Now in the safety and comfort of his own dwelling, he dropped himself onto the bed, arms and legs sprawled out on the soft comforting mattress.

Yet even resting on the mattress, his mind and body were seemingly doing everything in their power to do to the exact opposite of rest. Lincoln's heart palpitated in a similar pattern to when he first entered Lisa's lab, his respiratory pattern was irregular, and coherent thought was all but a façade.

Lincoln inhaled deeply with as much air as he could muster, then released the pressure building up within. His body initially fought against him, but after a few deep breaths, he found himself calming down, tension slowly releasing and a clearer vision on the recent events.

Just then, someone knocked at the door.

Lincoln lightly facepalmed, then dropped his arm beside him. He pushed himself upright and off the bed, stretching before opening the door.

In front of him was Lori, who Lincoln greeted with an unamused expression.

"Oh, it's you," Lincoln said just as sullenly.

"Hey Lincoln, are you doing okay?" Lori asked.

"I'm fine," Lincoln flatly responded.

Lori sat down on the edge of the bed and pat the area next to her with warm eyes and a smile. "Why don't you come sit next to me?"

After hesitating at the entrance for a few seconds, Lincoln shut the door and slowly scooted over to his bed. He sat down where Lori motioned him to, and Lori put an arm around his shoulder.

Lori turned to look at her brother, and her gaze softened at what she saw. Lincoln had his head down, arms limply resting on his legs, and his hands hanging down the gap in between.

"Listen…" Lori started. "I'm sorry about what happened today. I definitely should have asked you if it was okay to take a picture or not." Lori glanced away as she said those words.

Lincoln remained silent.

"I felt bad about what I did, so I deleted the pic. See?" Lori took her phone out, opened the photos app, and held it in front of Lincoln. He quickly peeked at the screen before turning his head in the opposite direction.

Lori clasped her hands together and laid them on her lap. "I also want to make it up to you for the embarrassment I caused," she continued. "So I got $20, and I thought it'd be fun if we went to Gus' Games 'n Grub later, today, tomorrow, whenever you want. It's been a while since we've played games together." Lori smiled.

Lincoln still remained unmoved.

"Give it some thought, okay?" Lori rubbed Lincoln's head lightly before standing up, opening the door, and walking out the hall. Before closing the door, she peeked through the room one last time.

Lincoln didn't glance up to acknowledge Lori leaving the room at all.

Lori sighed as she turned away, finally shutting the door slowly with a soft click.

A few seconds passed until Lincoln finally turned his head towards the door that Lori left through just now. He softly shook his head as he slowly stood up from his bed.

Lincoln walked up to his desk, where he placed his gaming goggles earlier. He picked them up in his hands and started looking at it from multiple angles, regret slowly welling up in his eyes.

He turned his head towards where Lisa's lab was, and softly returned the gaming goggles to his desk. Lincoln returned to his bed and dropped himself down again, an airy oomph resonating from the impact. There he lay, doing nothing more than simply stare up at the blank monotone ceiling. His thoughts were reduced to a longing desire for something that he felt was missing, and they played on repeat several times over.

A few minutes in, Lincoln lifted his head up towards the wall in front of him. Behind the wall was the Virtual Reality Gaming Device. It held the path to escapism, the path to a Lincoln that wasn't a wimp or a pushover, and the path to an infinitely engaging world and life. But most of all, it almost felt as though it contained  _what mattered_.

"Those goggles aren't enough anymore," Lincoln sighed. "None of this is enough anymore…"

And so, he dropped his head on the bed and continued to stare at the blank empty ceiling.

* * *

Lincoln sat down at the breakfast table with his left elbow resting on the table and head resting in his hand. His other hand held a spoon as he poked at his now soggy bowl of cereal sitting in front of him.

"Eldest sibling, I have completed the trigonometry homework as requested, though it is my opinion that establishing the deadline closer to the beginning of school would be more sensible than when we collectively suspend consciousness the day before," Lisa said as she read a book and chewed on some waffles.

Lori perked up at that. "Oh, that! Yes, thanks Lisa, just hand it to me before we leave okay?"

"Oh that reminds me!" Luna glanced up from her toast with jam. "Lori, I need you to drive me to the street drumming contest I told you about on Wednesday."

"You're playing with pots and pans! What kind of music is that!?" Lola asked.

"Eh, it's still rock and roll to me."

Lincoln's sisters all surrounded the table, but the conversation happening between them was all but incoherent babble. Eventually, he stood up from the table and made his way towards the stairs, leaving his cereal and his sisters.

"Hey Lincoln, why are you flaking on us?" Luan giggled as she held up a box of corn flakes.

"Speaking of flaking, where was he yesterday?" Lynn wondered out loud.

"Yeah, he was supposed to help me find Izzy but I couldn't find him anywhere!"

Lincoln paid her no mind as he trudged his way up the stairs. When he reached the top floor however, his downcast expression slowly morphed into one of determination. He tiptoed his way to a room that he had yearned for all of yesterday, all of today, basically ever since he set foot inside the device that changed his life, in some ways literally.

In front of Lisa's door, Lincoln reached over to open the doorknob, his hands slightly shaking at the prospect of just what he was about to get himself into. He turned the doorknob slowly, both in anticipation, and to avoid making a sound. Once the knob was fully turned, he pushed the door open ajar and poked his head in. He scanned the room, turning his head left and right before slipping in through the crack, lightly pushing the door and manually turning the doorknob closed.

Right ahead, Lincoln's eyes were on the prize. The Virtual Reality Gaming Simulator lay on the desk in plain view, with Lisa's laptop and the, er, wrist thingy nearby.

Now that he was in the room, Lincoln slowly tiptoed his way towards the device. Soon, he would be home free. No more would he have to experience the dread that is school. Here, there was no school. Here, he had control over his being, over what he did, and who he was. Free of responsibility, free of embarrassment, free of his own feeble nature.

Finally in front of the device, Lincoln stopped to stare at awe over the machine he had very well acquainted himself with for the past few days now. He put a hand on top of the device and started caressing it with an affectionate sigh. His other hand joined in on giving the machine attention as well. Soon after that, he moved his hand on top to make room for his head, which soon rested in place. Lincoln was now outright hugging the device.

"My concern for your apparent infatuation towards the Virtual Reality Gaming Simulator had begun yesterday, but I do believe you've hit an all time low with how you seem to be romanticizing inanimate objects today."

Lincoln's eyes shot wide open and his entire body froze at the sudden voice of the familiar figure that had birthed his digital sanctuary.

"Am I to understand that you legitimately believed I bought your feeble attempts at deceiving me yesterday?" she said with an accusatory tone.

Lincoln pried his hands off the device, despite his entire body screaming to appreciate the moment a little longer, and  _especially_  not to turn towards the  _menacing figure that could take it all away_. He turned to face Lisa and pointed finger guns towards his younger sister with an awkward grin.

"Hey Lisa, didn't expect to see you there, heh." Lincoln's sheepish grin grew wider as he put his hands behind his back. Beads of sweat were starting to form on his forehead.

"Even now, your presentation of your current demeanor is far more embarrassing than any amount of 'twerking' ever was," Lisa said as she adjusted her glasses and approached Lincoln.

"What are you doing up here?" Lincoln backed himself up against the desk, his grin slowly turning upside down as Lisa got closer.

Lisa soon got in front of Lincoln, who inched to the side in the face of his younger sister. "Pursuit wasn't my intent, I had business to take care of," she answered. Lisa swiped her hand behind Lincoln, which returned with a stack of math homework. "Given your lack of appetite, your abrupt departure from the familial dining table, and taking into account the observations gathered from the past two days, I had reason to believe you were preparing to engage in an activity with deliberate disobedience to my earlier requests."

"I, uh, look a Jackalope!" Lincoln yelled as he pointed in some arbitrary direction up ahead. He then immediately grabbed the machine and turned to run towards the door. However, Lincoln had barely taken a step before was immediately forced to the ground by the crushing mass of the machine he coveted. Lisa watched Lincoln the entire time, hands behind her back with an unchanging neutral expression.

Lisa took her glasses off her face, covered her eyes with one hand, and slowly shook her head. "You've embarrassed yourself enough Lincoln," she muttered. "The Virtual Reality Gaming Device won't function without the associated computer to operate said device. What a poor lost proverbial soul you are."

"I'm gonna play this game!" Lincoln yelled. His hands reached around to clutch the device in his arms.

The door to the room opened, and Lori presented herself at the entrance, one hand on her hip and the other just having let go of the doorknob.

"No you're not Lincoln, you're going to school today like everyone else," she said matter-of-factly.

"You can't tell me what to do! No one can!" Lincoln pushed himself upright and turned towards the laptop on the desk. He lifted the screen open and was greeted with a blinking text box and the word 'Password' on top of it.

"Nice try Lincoln, I logged myself out while you were temporarily incapacitated on the floor," Lisa snidely remarked.

"Nononononononono!" Lincoln balled his hands into fists and slammed them down on the desk. Upon impact, he immediately felt a sharp pain from the sides of his hands and lifted them up uncurled, crying out in pain. With that, he dropped down on his knees, his arms lay limp on the desk in front of him, and Lincoln laid his head down on top in defeat.

Lori put a palm on her face as she entered the room. "You guys have a lot of explaining to do," she muttered.

"Allow me," Lisa started. She cleared her throat.

"What's going on in here?!"

Lola was at the forefront of the group of other siblings that had appeared before Lisa's door. She was leaning forward and squinting, eyes constantly shifting focus towards Lori, Lisa, and Lincoln.

"Yea dude, is everything cool up in here?" Luna asked.

Lincoln was sniffling now, as he closed his eyes and fought back the tears that started welling up in his eyes.

"Uhh guys?" Leni lifted a finger and pointed it at Lincoln. "That doesn't look cool to me," she remarked, a worrisome undertone present in her voice.

Lori gave another look at Lincoln, who continued to emotionally destabilize before her very eyes. Her gaze softened as she relaxed her face muscles and her stern expression transitioned into one of genuine concern.

She walked up to where Lincoln was in front of the desk. She crouched down to his level and turned to look at Lincoln's face. She caught a glimpse of the glimmer on his eyes before he turned his head to face the other direction.

"Lincoln? What happened?"

He didn't respond.

Lori put an arm around his shoulder. "I'm not mad Lincoln, I want to help you."

All the other siblings continued to watch as their brother ignored the advances made by Lori. Some exchanged glances, some stared down at the ground, some played with the fingers on their hands. None of them however moved from the entrance.

Eventually, Leni stepped forward, pushing through the crowd and slowly making her way towards Lincoln. Her hands were nervously fiddling with each other up on her chest and her eyes kept jumping to and away from him.

"I wanna help him too," Leni said. She continued walking towards Lincoln until she was next to him where he was facing. She gazed down at Lincoln's face, who instinctively turned his downwards, burying his face within his arms.

Luna stepped forward as well. "Same here brah, same here." She walked towards the three at the desk and stood directly behind Lincoln.

One by one, the sisters approached Lincoln, taking the nearest available space they could to be as close to their brother as possible. In the midst of this gathering, Lincoln stirred a bit digging his head even deeper into his arms than he could, but alas there wasn't much to dig into.

Finally left with just Lisa, she remained hesitant at her spot in the room. She watched as the other siblings gathered around Lincoln, no longer able to maintain the monotone expression she usually sported. Her hands shook slightly as she took off her glasses and wiped them on her sweater, only to be blasted with the same image of her siblings' support as she put them on again.

She slowly edged towards Lincoln, and her other siblings made room for Lisa as she got closer. Even despite her constant claims of not putting any stock into 'inane human emotions', she was human nonetheless. Seeing Lincoln's apprehension to his siblings' love and slowly breaking down was a sight only for the heartless to dismiss.

"We care about you Lincoln," Lori softly reassured Lincoln. "We all do."

Just then, the dam that Lincoln had built for himself collapsed, and the tears that he held back for so long burst through. Lincoln was now sobbing softly to himself, the sounds muffled through his head still buried within his arms.

"I know you guys do," he cried. "I care about you guys too."

Lori gently stroked Lincoln's hair as she listened.

"I want you guys to be happy," Lincoln sobbed amidst all his sniffling.

"Aww Lincoln, we're the happiest we could ever be," Lana said. "We couldn't ask for a better brother than you."

"Yeah! You play fashion photographer and help me with my beauty pageants all the time!" Lola mentioned.

"You're always willing to listen to my poems and help make them better," Lucy commented.

"You sparred with me! Twice! In the same day!" Lynn added.

"I KNOW!" Lincoln exclaimed.

All the sisters were stunned speechless. They exchanged nervous glances at each other in the face of their younger brother's sudden outburst. It wasn't like Lincoln never did have moments like this, but it was still incredibly surprising and just as impactful every time it did.

"Why does showing care have to be so much work sometimes?" He sobbed. "I have things I want to do too! When I wanna play a game, half the time one of my sisters come up to me and ask me to do something, and I have to keep doing that all day every day! It's not like I don't want to, but can't I catch a break once in a while?!"

Lincoln dragged out his right arm from under his head, which glimmered under the light from the tears he wiped away with it. He pointed his arm towards the general direction where the gaming device was on the floor. "That's my only escape," he cried. "That gaming device. I can be who I want doing whatever I want in there. Away from all my worries and problems."

The rest of the siblings collectively turned their heads over the device Lincoln was pointing at. What the hell was that even? It just looked like another one of Lisa's inventions, a gray cube with a few buttons and lights.

Whatever, that wasn't important right now. What was important was making sure Lincoln was okay. They all turned back to face Lincoln, who had retracted his arm and now put it on the side of his head, somewhat gripping the hair that was there.

"You know," started Lucy. "You could just say no."

"Yeah," Leni affirmed. "You love all of us, and you work so hard!"

"I can always depend on you to give me good advice!" Lola added.

"You have your own interests and things you wanna do, and you deserve help and support just as much as us," said Lori, who still stroked his hair. "The least we could do is give you the same love and respect you give us all the time." She smiled.

Lincoln sniffled once more as he turned his head to face Lori. Her genuine smile radiated with the affirmation that she really meant every word she said. The reassuring presence of his siblings felt as though they were all collectively working together to lift a weight that had been on his shoulders for years. His siblings weren't out to get him and ruin his life. They wanted to spend time with him because they cared, just as much as he did.

Lincoln's eyes as he lifted his head up and wiped away the tears that remained. He slowly pushed himself up using the desk and turned to face the rest of his siblings when he was finally upright. He saw them all looking at Lincoln with a similar affection to what Lori had shown him earlier as well.

A small smile slowly crept on Lincoln's face as his siblings opened their arms to reach in for a hug. Lincoln followed suit and reached in as well, and his siblings all shared a loving embrace that they had done time and time again. Despite having shared such a moment possibly hundreds of times before however, each hug felt just as powerful as the last, and the bonds created by the siblings were cemented even further as the loving family they were. Instead of tears of sadness and despair, Lincoln was now weeping with tears of joy.

"You guys are the best sisters a boy could ever ask for," Lincoln said.

Continuing the group hug for several seconds longer, the siblings pried themselves away from each other, now standing in their places and looking at each other with a warmth in their eyes over their physical display of affection.

Lisa cleared her throat. "Pardon me, I don't mean to put a damper on what would otherwise be classified as a 'wholesome moment', but I do believe if we don't make haste we will be marked tardy for our regularly scheduled obligations to public education."

"Alright guys, you heard her, get your stuff and hop in Vanzilla!" Lori announced as she waved her arms towards the door. The rest of the siblings followed suit and made a mad dash for the hall and towards their own respective rooms to grab their belongings.

That is, all the siblings except for Lincoln. He didn't make a mad dash for anything, instead slowly inching towards the door where Lori awaited him at the entrance.

At the entrance, Lincoln turned towards the device that now lay on the floor in front of the desk. For a split second, he considered running back and trying to jump back inside the machine, like he had the past few days now. The Virtual Reality Gaming Device provided escapism, but it was providing an escape from a family life that, when it came down to it, was a lot better than it seemed. In the machine, Lincoln could feel a sense of power and personal autonomy unlike any other. He could have all the time to himself, be as strong, as fast or as fit as he wanted, and be away from any potential problems that could arise in real life.

Lincoln quickly shook his head and increased his pace, walking straight out the door and turning right towards his room. He didn't turn back once. He didn't turn his towards Lisa's room when he retrieved his bag, to when he climbed down the stairs, to when Vanzilla pulled out of the driveway.

Here, he heard the familiar vibrant chatter of his siblings in the car. Luan cracked bad puns, inducing a collective grown. Lana bought some of her pets on the van, much to the dismay of everyone else. Lisa read a book to herself and made constant snide remarks about the ongoing activities in the van.

"In the Loud House, we always annoy each other, it's super chaotic, and it can be pretty hard to find some peace and quiet to yourself," Lincoln said to himself. "But now I realize, I love all of this for the whole package. For everything bad that ever happens, we can always count on each other to be there. That's not something I can ever get from a video game, no matter how awesome that game is."

"Talking to yourself again dude," Luna remarked.

Lincoln turned to acknowledge Luna next to him and smiled.

* * *

It was another Saturday when Lincoln and Lori got out Vanzilla and walked towards the entrance to Gus's Games and Grub. A place dear to Lincoln's heart, with it being a source of comfort, endless entertainment, and amazing food to boot! This time however was especially special.

"Man Lori, I haven't seen you play video games in forever!" Lincoln shook fists in front of his chest and gazed at the flashing sign on the building in anticipation.

"Hey, I've said this before, you can't *always* say no." Lori winked. "Besides, I haven't seen you play games in a few days either."

"Heh, yeah I've kinda avoided that because of what happened recently." Lincoln's eyes drifted away from the sign. "But I'm ready to come back today  _with a vengeance!"_ He exclaimed, fists now balled in a fighting stance and determination in his eyes.

Lincoln and Lori opened the door and walked inside. Immediately, they were flooded by a plethora of sights and sounds. Some were eating pizza and garlic knots at the tables to the right, some were spazzing out playing Dance Battle, some pinging noises were heard from the pinball table. There was always something to be looking at or something to do.

They both went up to a token dispenser and inserted a $10 bill. Out came 40 tokens, which they both stuffed in their pockets. They jingled inside as they walked away to search for something to do.

"It's too bad you don't work here anymore, you could have totally hit us up with some freebies," Lincoln said as he grinned and poked Lori with his elbow.

"Ahh I remember that, you made me work overtime because I gave you too much free stuff!" Lori responded with a poke back.

"I ditched my chance to go to a super awesome party to fill in for you though! That is, a party in a nasty sewer with some nasty people!"

They both laughed at the memories as they got in front of Alien Blaster 3000. There were aliens being pelted at the screen from within, and two guns stationed near the front for two players. Lori dug into her pocket and rolled two tokens into their respective slots. The screen lit up with the text "pull triggers to begin".

Lincoln picked his gun up and Lori picked up hers. They both turned towards each other with a grin.

Yes, Alien Blaster 3000 is a _really_  fun game where you get to blow up aliens in space and be totally freaking awesome! But this time, it wasn't just about the game. It was also about doing the things you love with the people you love.

They both turned towards the screen, gripped their guns, shifted into a fighting stance, and pulled the trigger.

The battle music started playing and aliens started swarming in front of the screen. Right now, there were a bunch of aliens waiting to be pulverized by the death ray that they held in their hands. What came after however was more important: the memories that they would form with the good times they had together. Sharing memories, creating them, or simply being there for each other.

That was something Lincoln wouldn't trade for the world.


End file.
